Sunday, January 26, 2014

Burrrrrr in Bed-Stuy

Winter is here and 1 thing is very clear....I don't live in Southern California anymore.
It is COLD here.  There's no other way to say it.  No point in sugar coating it.


The first thing people who know I'm from CA ask me when they see or speak to me is how I'm dealing with the cold.  Well, friends, the answer is simple - I'm handling it.  I do everything I can to spend as little time in it as possible.  And, when I have to go outside, I layer up as much as possible.

I will say that the weather is such an important fact of the lifestyle here.  I've learned a lot about NY this winter:

1.  There's no way to look thin, be warm AND dress professionally at the same time.  So you get used to looking thick in your professional attire.  It's probably a good idea to buy pants a size bigger than you need for the winter here.

2.  "Snow Days" are real.  It's not just in the movies.  And schools close early when a snow storm is coming.  People leave work early and it's completely normal.  It's a wonder anything gets done around here in January/February.

3. I have no idea about the science behind it, but I'm so grateful for that salt stuff people put down so that I don't slip and fall.  And for the people who take the time to shovel their sidewalks.  The people who don't do those things are not cool and I'm glad I've learned that if I do slip and hurt myself, I can sue them.  :-)

4.  It doesn't matter what the actual temperature is, you have to pay attention to the "feels like" temp cuz that wind chill is no joke.

5.  Before moving here, I knew about rain, snow and hail.  But, did y'all know about freezing rain?  It's liquid when it's falling.  But, because the air is freezing, it's ice by the time it hits the ground.  No bueno.

Do, I miss 70 and 80 degree weather in January?  Absolutely!!!!!  Yep!!!  Every freaking day!!!  But, at least here I have an excuse to buy and wear cute scarves and gloves and not feel silly.  :-) 

Bedridden in Bed-Stuy

Okay, so I wasn't really bedridden at all.  But, I liked how it sounded in the title.  :-)

On January 6th, after flying back to NY on a redeye flight from my perfect trip to LA, I came home early on a Sunday morning, went to sleep and woke up with what felt like a sprained ankle.  To this day, I don't know what it was.  I don't remember twisting it, falling or dropping anything on it.  But, I couldn't put all my weight on my right foot.  There was swelling for the next few days and it wasn't until this week that it felt normal again.

Can I just tell you how terrible it is to have a foot/ankle/knee injury in NY?  We walk everywhere here.  We need our lower extremities to be fully functioning every day.  Limping around here was not fun.  Going up and down stairs was arduous.  Walking to and from the train was exhausting.  Going anywhere was pretty much a chore.  I'm not the most patient person in the world and I pride myself on walking fast and hate being stuck behind slow walkers.  So, you can how frustrating that 2 and a half weeks was for me.  I thought I had really accomplished something when one morning I limped passed a man on crutches.  WIN!!!

I'm MUCH better now and back to being able to make plans and not worry about the amount of walking I'll need to do.  But, it was very weird this mysterious injury.