In an effort to un-demonize winter for myself, I have been thinking about winters past and the glee brought with childhood. Before the scraping of the car windows, standing in the freezing cold, waiting for someone to open the door, and the slowness of a morning commute, there was the joy of discovery, the first time in real midwest snow, and the 6 layers I had to wear to even look outside. Here are 10 memories I have from the Winters of My Life:

1983: 4-5 years old: ski resort - probably SugarBowl.
I wanted so badly to slide dangerously down the hills with my aunt and uncle. They attempted to get me into some baby skis, but I refused to move without poles. My first skiing instruction (which lasted for all of 30 seconds); my first memory of snow.

1987: 8 years old: school: San Jose, California.
Standing under the eaves of Primary Plus waiting for the rain to stop so we could play wall-ball for recess. Thankful that the teachers didn't force us to stay inside and draw or something equally horrific.

1989: 10 years old: school: Applegate, California.
The half-year I attended the Live Oak Waldorf school was awesome, and included an extremely snowy winter. Power coated the mountains, and my class climbed up a hill next to the ampetheatre. I sat down on a plastic bag to keep from getting wet. Instead of staying in one place, I found myself sliding down the hill backwards at an incredible speed, my classmates yelling after me. The adventure ended with me at the bottom of the ampetheatre and a sprained wrist.

1990: 11 years old: Grandma's house: Gaylord, Michigan.
Oh holy crap for crap and jeebus and all things lovely, there is 6' of snow here. Failed attempts at sledding (too much snow!), and the first time on cross-country skis (I loved it, and didn't fall down, and got the poles!). Possibly the first time really enjoying snow. That same winter I fell down the stairs at my cousin's house, breaking my wrist, the beginning of a habit.

1991: 12 years old: home: Loomis (now Granite Bay), California.
It had gotten so cold that most everyone's pipes froze and burst in all sorts of inconvenient ways and places. While our parents were busy cleaning up, Courtney and I were kneeling by the pool, punching through the ice on top and creating thin swords with which to slash at each other. We shrieked as the ice shattered, throwing shards and water droplets into our faces.

1993: 14 years old: walking to the bus stop: Sunnyvale, California.
Rain. It hadn't stopped raining for days. I didn't carry an umbrella because that would have been so very uncool. My eyeliner doesn't run because I can't afford the real stuff - I used my dad's old greasestick pencils left over from his Navy days.

1994: 15 years old: walking to school: Boise, Idaho.
My first winter in Boise. I had never used a hairdryer, so I left the house with a mop of wet hair on my head. Halfway through my walk, I realized that my hair had fused into cold clumps. At first, I thought I had put too much gel on. Then I realized that my hair was in fact frozen. Embarassment.

1996: 17 years old: walking to the car from school, Boise, Idaho.
I left school early due to what would later be diagnosed as Bronchitis and Strep Throat. When I got to the car, it wouldn't start, the battery dead. I called my mom from the 8th St. Marketplace payphones (which no longer exist), and started walking towards the bus stop. On my way out of the building, I had to step up on a curb to keep from being run over by a guy in his Beemer. As my eyes were focused on the ground, I didn't see the treebranch I walked into, resulting in whiplash and a trip to the emergency room hours after the incident. The guy in the Beemer got out of his car and laughed at me.

1999: 20 years old: home: Downtown Boise, Idaho.
New Year's eve: We were excited to be going to the largest party any of us had gone to - the public fest in the heart of downtown. Kristen and Ryan came over, we drank a bottle of cheap blush, and left the building. As soon as we stepped outside, snow started falling, and we went right back to my apartment, grumbling, to grab coats and hats. Our outfits were ruined, but we had a great time milling about with a few thousand other people. Pressed against a building at Capital and Main, I heard fireworks erupt the sound of the New Year. I came home to a bathtub full of water, and a pantry stuffed with canned food and ramen. Just in case.

2001: 22 years old: driving to Sun Valley: just outside of Shoshone.
Ben's taking me to the Sun Valley lodge for the night, just as a fun mini-break. The highways are a sheet of ice, and we're following too closely behind another vehicle - or so I feel - which is 15 carlengths ahead. The car in front of us turns on the blinker and starts to slow down. Ben doesn't follow suit, and we're quickly coming upon the other vehicle. Ben hits the breaks, and we go twirling about on the ice like a skater sowcowing. When the vehicle comes to a stop, we're not in a ditch, but we're alive, so we continue on our way, another 50 miles to the lodge. Later that night, in the Lodge dining room, Ben asks me to marry him. I say yes.

Sorry to end on such a sappy note. But even writing this made me a little more lenient of the time left of winter.

Now, onto spring...

Finally the Pants and the other Pants are gone. It was good to have them here while they could be here, but I wish they could have stayed longer. The original Pants used to the the nucleus of the Boise Urban Tribe, and since he's been gone, it just hasn't been the same. I certainly miss both of them dearly, as I do the rest of the Tribe members that have moved away.

I am currently in the midst of something kind of scary on the homefront. While it's not something to really fret all to much about, it's still making me nervous and queasy. Wish I could report more, but as you may know, this is the internet.

I was sick with some kind of nasal and respiratory ailment last week, and I am still feeling the afteraffects of it, which is mostly in the form of exhaustion. The most unfortunate part is the lack of being able to actually do something about the exhaustion, namely: sleep.

The landlord came over today to show the building to a potential buyer and to look at some of the damage done in the bathroom by both the previous tenents and the 19-year-old upstairs neigbors who manage to make the ceiling leak at least once a month. To my surprise, he expressed interest in redoing the entire bathroom (which we have been wanting to do ever since we moved in), as well as painting, and paying for all of the above. Well, at least the hardware and whatnot. This means we can actually afford to paint almost the entirety of the interior of the house, which is just the awesomest thing ever.

I'm boring myself here, so I'll stop now.

Except for... update:
Currently the 19yo neighbor that prefers country music is at home, the ex-(at least I think it's "ex")stripper has returned home with her 5yo daughter, thankfully hopefully putting an end to the all-girl ex-(really haven't a clue if they're ex- or not, but they all look like they are)stripper parties that I'm assuming were bachelorette parties, as they included lots of alcohol, smoking, and glasses with giant penis attached to where one's nose should be, and my living room will never ever warm up enough for me to stop touching the heater turny-nob. Slightly annoyed and frozen. And that, my friends, will be all.

Yesterday afternoon I was in my car, driving home from work. As per usual, I was smoking and listening to my iPod. Some misc. song came on that I didn't want to listen to, so I turned on the randomizer and hit the "next" button.

To my rip-roaring surprise, the song that started playing was one I knew all too well, but I was ignorant to the fact that it resides on my iPod. That song, ladies and gentlemen, was Regulators by Mr. Warren G.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the rap or hiphop, though there are a few exceptions that pop up, of course. When I was younger, I never owned any Warren G or Snoop CDs, nor did I want to. I got all I needed off of the radio. Listening to the generic rock/pop/alternative station broadcast from Sacramento gave me a well-rounded catalog of songs in my head. Courtney (bridesmaid!) and I would go over to Frankie's house and jump from the back porch railings onto the trampoline while shouting the lyrics to Jump Around (House of Pain).

The outstanding memory of Regulators is a montage of watching MTV at Frankie's (we didn't have cable at home), sneaking into the theatre to see Boyz in the Hood, hanging out with a girl and her friends, who were all a few years older than I (daughter of my mom's friend), being in the girl's boyfriend's (who later became my boyfriend) IROC-Z with massive subwoofers in the back thumping into my head while laying down in the pitiful back seat, buzzed on cheap beer. I was 14. How quickly innocence fades.

I listened to the song twice on the way home, turned up loud, and thought about the past. And about how I'm glad I never got any huge subwoofers for the back of my own car.

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But for some reason, there are still Christmas decorations up in my office. Someone come and take them down, please.

Chanukah was awesomelicious, and this is the first year that we've actually lit the channukia properly for all 8 days. Go us! Previous years left us forgetful, so we'd skip day 5 or 7, and end up with chanukah guilt (instead of gelt - get it?! haha!!).

Anyhow, lots of stuff has happened. Got some cool stuff for greedfest and the little xmas celebration with the mom. Common New Year's was fun, with a wine drunk, and lots of snow. Photos (of the snow at least) forthcoming to a Flickr near you.

Now for some fun, written specifically for me by our own dear Mr. Hype:

once upon a great lovely time ago there was a mean, nasty, horrible, and stingy young girl named vlyned (rhymes with enid).

vlyned lived in a magical land full of puppies and kittens and little pink floating hearts and rainbows and fields of cocaine and heroin and marshmellow clouds and trees made out of licorice and boobies.

but living in this magical land brought her no happiness, not even when buzzing from the sugar, or with veins full of the sweet sweet china white. she hated the happiness that puppies and drugs could bring to people, and longed for misery.

one day, while she was out snorting some fairy dust with a group of school children, she decided that she would leave that land once and for all and seek out the misery that she craved. eventually she arrived in the cold cold north and, since she had forgotten to wear warm clothing, she froze to death. and a polar bear ate her face and crapped it out.

the end!