Liquid Sunshine

So you'll never guess what happened... The bipolar weather is back, yet again. After almost a week of partly cloudy and temperatures climbing up to fifty-five degrees, it was beautiful outside. Although the overcast clouds yesterday started to indicate the downpour we received today.

I could hear the rain drops by the time I went to bed last night. I actually am in love with falling asleep to the sound of a drizzle outside my window. Waking up seven hours later, the chilliness was what hit me first. The coldness made me want to climb even deeper into the warmth of my heavy down comforters. Then the smell started to creep up my nose. The wet pavement and running gutters wafted through my bedroom. I quickly shut my cracked window and got out of bed.

Photo Courtesy www.howtobeadadtoday.com

Heading outside to get in the car, the reflection of the gray sky was mirrored off of the blacktop driveway, and a mist slowly fell from the air, not even enough to call it a drizzle. I ran back inside to grab a raincoat. I love this kind of weather. I like how it makes the day at school so cozy, and somehow you feel the warmth radiating off of other people more just because of the cold outside. I like looking out the classroom window and noticing how smoky the sky looks. I like how everyone shows up to school in sweatshirts and scarfs. I don't see the rain as such a bad thing on a day like this.

The rain soon turned into sleet as the day began to get colder. By this evening the precipitation could easily be classified as snow. By the end of the day a thin layer of sugar veiled the ripening grass, it should probably be melted away by tomorrow or the next day. It feels as though every time the grass begins to fade to green, and the trees begin to foliate, and the flower begin to bloom, it must snow.

The rain made me want to curl up with a hot coa-coa and read a good book or watch an old movie. The coziness of the rain is completely evident to everyone as well. The weather tends to put people on the same page like that. It's even been thought and proven that a rainy day can change your mood. This is mostly thought to have to do with how much sunlight your body is exposed to, so on a dark rainy day, for example, the amount of sun your body is receiving will obviously be significantly less than a hot sunny day. Rainy days can also effect your internal clock.

I'm not necessarily even complaining about the rain. I definitely enjoy a lazy and snug day under the clouds every once an a while. I'm just glad that the forecast foresees the sun coming back by Wednesday ;-). Until than I'm more than content grabbing some cuddly blankets and some 90s movies to wait out the rain.

Tick Tock on the Internal Clock

Everyone has an "internal clock" that keeps on ticking, and can be disturbed by time changes, location changes, and even weather changes. Yesterday was daylight savings. We moved an hour ahead for the spring. I personally like daylight savings because I really do enjoy the extra hours of daylight in the evenings. Although I do find some effect of disorientation having to adjust to the time change. Even though it may not be significant (only an hour ahead), waking up having lost an hour did sort of put me in a weird mood for the day. I am also a person that doesn't adjust well with time differences, I always have a hard time adjusting to the jet lag when traveling on the east coast. Daylight savings is just a miniature version of that in my own backyard.

Photo Courtesy amarillo.com

Not only has daylight savings had my internal clock feeling wonky (and I'm sure I'm not the only one), but the weather has been inconstant as well, to say the very least. Several weeks ago it felt closet to mid-April or May, the flowers even started to bloom and it was frankly feeling like the end-of-spring beginning-of-summer time. The very next week we had a massive storm and got snow in heaps. It was absolutely freezing for the preceding week. The past week felt like an average winter weather routine, although these previous couple days the weather has started to warm back up again. I know we all get so excited for a little gasp of spring air in our lungs, and then when the snow comes it's like being shoved back under the drowning waters of winter. The weather definitely effects my internal clock, I've been experiencing a good deal of central confusion and lack of focus in school when it's warmer outside, and then when it gets cold again it sends me into a depression-like state. I know I can't be the only one either. Even some of our teachers have been having some talks about the behavioral issues at school, and my science teacher, Ms. McKenna, told us her insight on how she thought it was because of the warmer weather and inconsistency in the weather might be effecting our "internal clocks" and that could very likely be playing into the bad behavior in school come this time of year.

The weather and time change are just enough to have me feeling like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I'm sure that I'll get back into a steady routine within the next week or so, but I really do dislike the sense of disorientation and confusion that a disruption to my internal clock brings. I don't know, maybe I'm just extra sensitive when it comes to a stable routine. I can understand that maybe you haven't been effected at all by these wacky changes in time and weather, but long-story-short, know you're not the only one if that's the case. ;-)

Freezing Matters

Yesterday started out like any other January morning. At 6:00am sharp my alarm started blaring and with a nauseating feeling in my stomach I knew the morning had started. It took all of my strength to pry my legs from the toasty comfort my bed provides. As I headed out the front door the headlights from my mom's car streaked through the morning fog. A layer of gray covered anything taller than thirty feet high like a blanket of dish-water cotton candy. The ice fought me as I ripped the door to the frozen car open. I slumped into shotgun and fumbled to smash the heat-seat button as soon as I could.

When I found myself sliding out of the car I remembered thinking the fog looked so pretty. The North 40 Field was hiding and the only thing I could make out was the path up to two to three feet in front of me. I love the mornings like this because it makes being inside at school feel so much more cozy. First period consisted of the same weather.

I have second period at the high school, the walk up to my class was comparable to my walk to school in the morning.

Then it happened.

Half way through second period it was as if the Gods above got into a pillow fight and the feathers were plummeting to the ground on Earth. Huge flakes of frozen condensation started ribboning through the sky. The little window looking out of French class in room 142 didn't even do the storm any justice. The walk back to Treasure was the real deal. As I opened the side door out into the snow globe, the nippy air hit me like a wave and I was immersed in the cold. I knew that is was going to be one of the longest five-minute walks of my life. I was right.

By the time I got back to Treasure, I'd never been happier to have reached those front doors going into school. My jacket went from dry to drenched and the fluff was gathered in piles on my shoulders and the top of my backpack. My braided hair had turned into a snow-caked-popcicle, and the mascara on my eyelashes had migrated to dark circles underneath my eyes.

Photo Courtesy: parkcitymountain.com

The worst part is I had to go back to the high school again for fourth period.

At that point the cotton balls had died down to specks of white sprinkles, so the walk there wasn't as bad as my walk back from second period was. The air was still frigid, I could feel my nostrils freeze shut every time I sniffled, but at least I wasn't layered from head to toe in snow.

When school got out, they made an announcement over the intercom that they were canceling all after school activities, including all varsity sports. The roads were so bad that they canceled everything.

I was hoping that maybe all of this would mean a snow day the next day. Unfortunately I had no such luck.

A Not-So-Warm Welcome To Winter

I think that it is safe to say winter has hit Park City. Personally, this time of year has been very frustrating for me; it's cold enough outside to make you want to stay indoors 24/7, the ground is slippery enough to slip and fall every other step, there's enough snow on the ground to get your boots wet and make your feet cold and uncomfortable the rest of the day. Yet, there's not enough snow on the mountain for all of the runs to be open, there aren't any storms to possibly contribute towards a snow day, and none of the holiday cheer has quite kicked in yet. I would like to skip to the part in the season where you feel totally submerged in the winter wonderland.

I love winter. I love the cozy sweaters, I love the warm drinks, I love the roofs blanketed in snow, I love waking up to a blizzard, I love the feeling of fresh powder under my skis, I even love the tourists that come into town for Sundance. I think Park City, having the "best snow on earth", lights up during the Winter when most other places are starting to shut-down, and I enjoy being a part of that.

Park City's Main Street
Photo Courtesy NY Times

As of today, December 10th, there are six of the sixteen chair lifts open at Park City Mountain Resort, if that doesn't give you a rough idea on how much snow we are lacking, maybe if you saw the grassy grounds and blue bird skies that would. Being a skier, I am a little concerned that Park City will be experiencing yet another snow-hungry winter. All I can do at this point is keep my fingers crossed and twin-tips waxed.

Park City Mountain Resort
Photo Courtesy allseasonsresortlodging.com

Until the ski season picks up, I will be content enjoying the sweater weather and Christmas Sales commercials on TV and embracing the holiday season.

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice... Kind of...

It is October 23rd, and the pumpkin-spice lattes are stinking up Starbucks. It's that time of year when you can walk to school in a sweater being freezing and have to walk home feeling 212º. The candy is being sold in bulk at all the grocery stores, and the spectrum of colors has already come and gone in a fiery flash of orange and yellow. Now, with crunchy-brown leaves on the ground, and a disgusting layer of mud coating the surface of the ground virtually everywhere, we are left with the grand season of Fall.

Photo Courtesy of dmu.edu

Fall is not my favorite part of the year. First of all, I simply can NOT stand the weather. When the forecast is up to par, the sky is either deep breathing into the crackling dead trees, raining pointless drops of precipitation (where is the snow already?), or the air is cold enough to nip at the tip of your nose. Today, for example, was frosty in the morning, but by the time I had to walk to the high school for fourth period I was uncomfortably warm in my long-sleeve and boots. It's that obnoxious unpredictability of what the weather that day might be like as well. Raining in the morning and sunny and windy in the afternoon, or cold in the morning and hot in the evening. Getting ready in the morning is more difficult than it should be for me.

Photo Courtesy socialismandorbarbarism.blogspot.com

The beginning of Fall means the ending of the first quarter in school. Which always brings the loveliness of test finals, last minute retakes, and extra credit, and of course the praying that your grade point average might rise those last thirty-four-hundreths of a point. (I have this really frustrating A- in Math).

As I am sure you are aware, *Halloween is on the 31st. 

*Halloween: An American function in which people put on plastic costumes, ranging from the Grim Reaper to Snow white, and knock on the doors of unknown neighbors asking for chocolate in shiny wrappers. A "fun" time for people of all ages.

Halloween is not particular number one on my list of favorite holidays (that'd probably have to be the Fourth of July). I'm not so sure why, maybe it's the fact that my night never really goes as planned, not necessarily in a bad way though. Maybe it's because it's always a struggle trying to pick out what to wear, and how not to get judged doing so. Maybe I don't like gory costumes, and the little princesses running around make me miss those days. Maybe it's because I simply hate the idea of carved pumpkins and cheesy orange and purple decorations across people's lawns. Who knows...

Each day through Fall is another day closer to Winter, I season more liked by myself. Sooner or later we'll get there. In the meantime, don't put cheesy orange and purple decorations all over your lawn.