ROBIEWANKENOBIE

i'm going to tell you a leeeeetle sekrit, and those of you in the fridgid north are probably going to hate me a little for this admission...but this winter? is rocking my socks off. seriously. for true. and it's not just because of the winter olympics.*

shoveling the driveway aside (dang, but our driveway was fucking HUGE), snow in new york was a celebration. it's a pretty good thing, too. our town? averaged 186 inches a year. my mom will tell you that the first year after they moved into my hometown? they didn't even know our neighbors until spring. new york knew how to do seasons right, my friends. spring was spring - and welcome after a long winter (never schedule anything important after thanksgiving). summer on the lake was the complete opposite of the cold winter, but never stiflingly hot. fall was full of beautiful leaves and the anticipation of the main event.

every single birthday, as far as i recall, was a celebration of winter. sledding parties at our next door neighbors (if you were lucky, the neighbors at the bottom of the sledding hill had plowed and you would loft over their driveway), or ice skating at the rink. there was the winter festival down at the lake where i won a couple of snow sculpture contests ('cause i can rock a snow sculpture, yo!) and skated on the lake. is there anything better than skating on a frozen lake? oh, i don't think so. mom used to bundle me up in my brother's hand-me-down knits and stuff breadbags on my feet under my boots. i woudn't come back inside until i was an actual icicle.

oh, and the cross country skiing. aside from the time that my evil kinieval playing partner in crime and i got lost in the woods, cross country skiing was the bomb. one of the best memories of my childhood was the time i spent cross country skiing with my father. one of the others was the time when my brother made me an actual motherfucking igloo in the front yard. ahhhmazing.

when i moved to kentucky? and it snowed the first time? they got an inch, and they closed the damn schools. i thought it was the beginning of a heavenly winter. oh, no, my friends. it was the beginning of cold without snow, but plenty of gloom. well, there was that time that it snowed on my birthday, and my boyfriend spirited me out of town to dinner, but that is my singular memory of a good winter. laws, but i hate winter in kentucky.

it never ever snows. we get ice. i hate driving on ice. and every time we get real ice? the whole mothefucking system is screwed. damn. the first big snow storm of my adult life was when i was pregnant and had a toddler...boy was that a pain in the ass. no electric for - get this - three weeks. we spent our time commuting back and forth from my parents house (which is 60 some miles away). last year? same damn thing. we couch surfed for over a week. geez. one of my close friends shared her one bedroom apartment with us...can you imagine two kids stuck in a one bedroom apartment for three days? it was excellent. *ahem* the kids and the friendship survived, but i can do without that fine experience in the future.

after i had mr6, i went on a magical trip to visit internets friends up north? oh, it was a wonderland. big fluffy flakes. loads of the good stuff. oh, i felt like i was at home. it was really damn cold (reeeeeeally damn cold), but beautiful.

so, this year? when it has snowed REAL snow? jumpin' jehosophat! not only could i break out all that crap that i've been knitting, but the sledding? and the snow days? oh, it is just puuuuuuuuuuuurfect! i actually had to break down and buy fucking boots (i got them last night and they are RED and warm and glorious and i was *theeeeeeeeeeeeese* close to wearing them to bed, and i'm not even lying).

i really am sorry for all of y'all who are suffering up north - okay, so there was that one winter in philly where i trecked past the frozen in place buses to get to work  - and they were closed. but dayumn. it is a wonderland up in here.

we have a three day weekend (thank you, presidents!) and then a forecast of the suhweet fluffy stuff. cross your fingers for us, my friends. wish us sledding, and snowball fights, winter and even - if we're really lucky - igloos in the front yard. zoweeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

*which also rock my socks off, because among other sports that i adore, there is also curling. my only shot at an olympic medal at my age is curling. and the motherfucking curling is alive and well at the olympics, yo!.