Old man winter

Greetings reader base! (I always chuckle when I say something like that!) It is 2:30am and I am completely awake. I was super tired at nine and fell asleep a little before ten (sorry Grace!) and then woke up at about one and have been tossing and turning in bed. I think I'm sick, but I'm not sure. Anyways, I was thinking, as I usually do, and my thoughts drifted towards winter. Now, I don't know if you know this, but winter is my absolute favorite season, which most people find odd, and my girlfriend (it took me five tried to spell that right) really hates winter. So, in order that she may understand me a little better and maybe even share is some of my joy, I wish to address some of my favorite things about winter.

First up is the cold. Now I know for pretty much everyone that this is actually their main reason for disliking the winter, but I see things differently. It does help that I am hot blooded (not in the temper way, but in the temperature way, which I just discovered has the word temper in it. Hmm...) and therefor don't feel the cold as much, but another reason that I really enjoy the cold is that it's kind of a shock to the system. In the summer and in the warm indoors I feel lazy and dopey, and going outside forces my body and my mind to sit up and smell the coffee as it were. Now we all know how I love symbolism, so I also appreciate winter's wake up value in a metaphorical sense. Oftentimes I, as well as others, get really lazy in our lives. Going on without thought or or purpose, and generally being kinda useless. We often need, and in my case sometimes crave, a sudden break in the monotony. A sudden blast of cold air to wake us up. I try to live by the idea that challenges are good, and maybe the wakefulness inspired by the chill of winter allows me to face those challenges. So that, in a nutshell, is why I like the cold.

Secondly, I love the snow. At the beginning of this winter there was pretty much just one snowfall that left anything on the ground and almost all that snow was gone by Christmas. So pretty much as far as the eye could see it was just seas of dead brown grass and gnarly dark trees. This had a major impact on my mood, and so I spent a little time reflecting on it, and this is what I thought. Most people connect winter and death. The spring is the blooming, the summer is the living, and the fall is the beauty of old age (or something like that). I understand that, but I see winter, and especially the snow, in a different light. When I see the snow, I see possibility. I see a giant canvas spread across everything I can see. All of my little world. I can look at the snow on the ground and see the site of a grand castle, or a little cottage, or a snow fort. I can look at a snow capped tree and wonder if it will have apples or a tree-house or cool, intricate leaves. I guess the inner artist I have is just in wonder at all of the possibilities that are there. I appreciate that the summer is the realization of those possibilities and that potential, but to me, that's not the important part. This is the part when my actor side comes in. The discovery is the fun part. The wonder of uncovering a little bit of ground from the snow, of finding a new path to blaze through the trees, of discovering the brightness of Grace's purple coat. The end is great and the end of the show does eventually come, but I always feel like we could have done something different, something better. The snow to me is the possibility of something that we never even dreamed could have happened. Of a summer that we couldn't have even imagined. That is why I love snow.
There are two other things that I want to say about snow, so I will.
Snow also facilitates a few of my favorite activities, namely, skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, and (in this case winter rather than snow) early evenings for playing games in the dark and cuddling. So there is that.
Also, I connect with the snow a lot. Here's the metaphorical part. I often feel like there are so many things that I have yet to uncover and learn, so many possibilities to realize. Winter, and how it sticks around here in Canada, gives me the opportunity to really dive in to that, the time to search for the meanings and knowledge without having to worry too much about what's off in the future. I know that one day I'll have a family and be a teacher and know more about what I'm talking about in apologetics, and it'll be wonderful. But I need the time to get there. I need the winter so that I actually have the time to plan and work on what I need to know and do and become before the spring comes and my labor comes to fruition.

Thirdly, and I think lastly for tonight, I just want to describe for you what one day in the life of me is like right now. It will probably come across a few of the ideas that I've already said, and maybe come across a few more.
I wake up. It's still a little too early to go to school, so I can just lie in my bed and relax for a bit. Maybe have some breakfast, but probably not. It's time to head out, so I put on my awesome sweater, put on my cool hot pink gloves, wrap my beautiful gray scarf around my neck, and put my wonderful monkey toque on. I step outside into the cold and let it wrap around me for a second before burying myself deeper into my clothes. I then check the wind to see if it'll bee to chilly on my poor fingers to ride my bike that day. I decide and either ride my bike or walk, but today, I walk. I start down the sidewalk and listen to the crunching beat that my shoes make on the snow. I change the beat and compose a new song in my head, sometimes with lyrics, sometimes just humming to myself. I enjoy my music as I walk the first two blocks to school. I then come to an intersection and I look at the different faces in the cars and trucks that pass by, wondering what they're thinking, what their lives are like. I cross the intersection and now I'm walking past an elementary school. I walk to school a later than that school starts, so all the kids are already in classes. I imagine my future. Some day I'll be a teacher, guiding my students in their growth, loving them, and giving them each the love and hunger for knowledge and understanding. I look at the snow in the schoolyard and think, "not yet, but someday." and continue on. I pass a strip mall and remember what I should have done last night with Mobile Marketeer and kick myself a little bit, and work some bits out in my head, and then come to the big intersection before the school. At this crosswalk there are usually a bunch of students waiting to cross and I take some time to observe them. Some just waiting, some shivering, some in huge coats, some in just a jacket. I also notice that 95% of students wear jeans even though they suck in the cold... We then all cross the street and as I walk across the parking lot, I look at all the different vehicles all parked neatly into their rows. I get to school and undo myself from my winter gear and get ready for class. The class is interesting and I learn stuff. After I'm done it's time to head home and sometimes it's getting dark at this point. The dark makes me contemplative, so as I make the journey back to my apartment I think about my day. What I've learned, what I've read in my plethora of books I'm reading, what people have said to me, what the different relationships I have are and how I can work on them. I usually think of calling Grace on my way home, but I usually forget my little earpiece and so I don't. (too cold on the hand) Once I get home I do some homework, play some video games, eat some food, maybe have a friend or two over, and then wait excitedly to see if Grace is up for a conversation tonight. Then it's computer for a few hours and then bed.

So there's more I could probably say about winter, but I'm going to leave it at that for now, being as it is an hour after I started and I think I should probably sleep sometime. So I guess in conclusion I'll just say, I do love old man winter, and I may be turning into him!