Black Ice and Vitamin D (or lack thereof)

I don't know what the Holiday Makers were thinking when they gluttonously stuffed THREE holidays into December and left January (for the American population anyway) holiday free. Seriously, December is such an awesome month! Everyone is excited about winter because it's so new and the snow is so fresh and beautiful and everyone is merry and anticipating good food and parties and cookies and presents and just general good cheer. Also, there is Christmas music. The one and only genre of music that we are only given licence to listen to for the duration of December 1st through 25th. After that, it is strictly forbidden (unless you want to get your stereo smashed by some "Christmas-is-OVER!" fanatic). But during our small allowance period, the music colors the world with warm tones and tinkling jingle bells and fleeting thoughts of a old fat man named Santa. All is calm, all is quiet.

And then January comes along.

Frigid, sunless, cheerless January. Known for unsuccessful weight loss attempts, slipping on black ice, record breaking temperatures in the negatives, frozen car engines, a severe case of color blindness (reduced to only seeing in black, grey and white), lack of vitamin D, snotty noses, and the urgent desire to stay inside bundled up in a blanket until April.

Not so appealing if you ask me.

Unfortunately, living through January in Chicago always affects me in the same way. Mild (undiagnosed) seasonal depression (mostly due to said lack of vitamin D from warm sunshine rays) that manifests itself in lingering longings to move to California (or ANYWHERE where there is sunshine and warmth!), listlessness, lack of motivation, and the strong desire to spend hours standing in a steaming hot shower (no, we don't pay for our water). As my brother so perfectly phrased it, in January, I "feel droopy."

So to combat my general sense of overall despair, I resolved (and you will see in a moment why me making resolutions is an absolutely absurd and generally horrible idea)....ahem....I resolved to go for a walk every day that the sun decided to come out and grace me with her presence. No matter what. I would walk in the sunlight and force that vitamin D and all those other damaging UV rays into my skin no matter what the circumstances (namely freezing temperatures and fear of falling on our perfectly iced sidewalks - seriously, I think the city paid someone to walk on every sidewalk in our neighborhood with a running hose...). I felt pretty good about my new resolve. It even put a little pep in my step for the rest of that gray day.

Yesterday, I wake up to sunshine! It was thrilling. Clear blue skies, and a warm inviting sun. Also, yesterday's high was -12 degrees F. At least that is what my phone said. It has been known to be wrong before, but even if it was 12 degrees F ABOVE zero, it really wouldn't have made much of a difference. It was absolutely ARCTIC outside. Sun or no sun, I did not go on my walk (resolutions obviously don't hold much water for me...).

I DID drive to the grocery store, however, with little girl in tow (she cried when I took her out in the cold. I know. WHY do we LIVE here????). I HAD to go to the grocery store because I was having my two favorite girls over for dinner and a fun girls' night and didn't have any dinner or fun girls' night ingredients. Also, I really had to get my dutch oven pot from Jewel that I paid ONE PENNY for. That's right. ONE PENNY. I spent months collecting stickers (even forcing them off some apathetic collectors and coercing my friends to buy groceries at Jewel, tell the cashier they were collecting stickers, and then hand them over to me). I REALLY wanted this dutch oven pot (as you can see)! Last week when Eric and I were shopping and went over to get the pot and turn in my beat up sticker book, it was the only piece of cookware that was out of stock. Go figure. So I had to go yesterday before all the last minute shoppers came to collect on the last day of the event. And buy it I did. For one tiny cent. It is beautiful. And while I know that Jewel already sports ridiculous inflated prices (precisely why I only go there for items that Aldi doesn't carry, like organic yogurt and tahini), it was incredibly rewarding to get at least a little something back from that money sucking hole of a grocery store. It was like a prize. And I am still smiling about it.

Ok, so anyway, despite my bunny trails of epic proportions, I still hate January, and would like to skip February altogether (despite the fact that it's the month of Hallmark hearts and love as well as my birthday month). That being said, I am really looking forward to March. The funny thing about March is that it is really no different than February in terms of weather. But something about it just always feels different. Perhaps because Spring and warm rain and the hope of sunshine and the end to our seasonally monochromatic world is so tantalizingly close. March also tends to sport random days of unseasonal warmth, which I love, and the increasing ability to push a stroller on non-iced sidewalks. It smells of a thawing earth and fresh emerging plant life. And the birds start singing again. I love that.

So here's to 5 1/2 weeks until March. And may January end gracefully. Until then, I will be concocting recipes in my new dutch oven pot and looking forward to cheerful notes from all of you! ;-)