All the feels of Winter

There’s no point in sugar-coating it: March has been a challenging month. And some of February. And let’s face it, most of winter. Winter sucks. It’s soul sucking. Add having a restless toddler to the mix of cold, wind, and snow, and you’ve got yourself a less than desirable situation. I’ve been dreaming of those warm days that consisted of 3 stroller walks in 12 hours, and chatting with other parents at the playground while you pushed your smiling son on the swings and sipped an iced latte. Sigh… it’ll be back soon enough, but really can it ever be “soon enough”?

Winter complicates things. It makes toddler teething and bad sleep worse. I don’t do well with sleep deprivation (who does though?) and when it goes on for too long, I end up in a feeling-sorry-for-myself mess. I’m not too proud to admit the past couple weeks have included many feelings of jealousy. I’ve been jealous of those who live close to their families and have grandparents and siblings around to help pick up the pieces when parenting gets tough. I’ve been jealous of my husband who has out of town best friends that he gets to see every couple months. I’ve also been jealous of people who are in the position to have a second child. Even though Nick and I still occasionally doubt that we’ll do it, we both know that in the long run, we want at least two kids, but it seems so complicated when you live in a 2-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, with no car (or license! Oh, me), a husband who has a job that requires travel, and have no family support for miles.

Then I read an interesting article today that totally changed my perspective. While I attribute the feelings above to uncertainty, maybe the envy I feel is actually some sort of drive. In any case, I’m happy to see the light and am consciously making the effort to pull my head out of the cloudiness I sometimes get stuck in when going through a rough patch with Henry. This isn’t forever, but family is and what we are ultimately doing is building a family. Whether we are a family of 3 or 6 (haha – yeah right!), these are little things that will pass in time. Also, how lucky am I to have this amazing kid AND to spend these years in New York City???

And how is YOUR day going?

A wintry update

This past week has been rather exhausting!

On top of starting a new position at Insound and meeting with a new web company about doing some part time work for them, the weather has continued to be very wintery, which makes it hard to want to leave the house or do more than is required each day. Last night I had to cancel dinner with a friend due to an impending ice storm, and what an ice storm it was! When I woke up this morning, the trees, cars, and most importantly, the ground, was covered in a thick coat of ice. It’s a good thing about a third of my block is an apartment complex that has a wrought iron fence around it, because holding onto that fence as I slid by was the only thing keeping me from falling down.

This winter has been a landmark – both because it’s my first winter in New York and also because we were incredibly close (or maybe we did?) to breaking the record for the most snow in January ever!

How are you liking the winter of 2011?

photo: Mother Firefly

Get ready for another snowstorm, feet!

The weather authorities are telling us New Yorkers that we are about to get another dumping of snow tonight and that dumping could result in as much as 14 inches of cold white stuff. I immediately thought of my feet. I walk everywhere I can and my Tretorn boots just got holes in them after the last storm. Way to let me down when I really need you, boots! Well, I guess I had them for three years so it must be time to upgrade.

This morning I ordered a pair of Hunter boots over the internet. It’s not so much the warmth I’m concerned about than the dryness. Dryness is the essence of warmth afterall, right?

What’s your favourite footwear for winter? I still need some more ideas so I stop wearing my military boots every day.

Keep warm & dry, East Coasters!

HNY

Happy New Year, blog!

It’s been unseasonably cold in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area, for you Americans and non-GTA residents) the past couple weeks. It’s also been about a week since the official end of the holiday season, which is an unfortunate double whammy of bummers. It’s usually around this time that I decide winter is no longer useful nor validated, but we still have a looooong way to go.

I’ve spent most of this week inside, but have left the house a couple times, including a trip to the unfortunately-named “Dutch Oven” in Orno to meet a gentleman who so kindly sold me his Nikon D80. He was a sweet, nerdy man who offered to take wedding photos for me after scoping out my rock. I didn’t want to explain my strange and complicated situation so I said “maybe” and pocketed his business card.

I’m trying to read most of the manual before I get too carried away with the camera, but so far, I love it! My favourite models, Jillian and Ben, were over the other day to pose for me.

In other non-camera or weather-related news, Nick and I both made lists of our goals for 2010 around New Year’s Eve and here are a couple of mine:

1. get married
2. take at least one class
3. read at least 10 new books (I’m doing great on this one, as I’m currently reading 3 books at once, not counting my driver’s manual or my camera manual)
4. get my beginner driver’s license
5. add new dishes to my baking/cooking repertoire
6. write at least one blog and/or She Does the City entry per month
7. keep doing yoga every other day

Nick’s are way better as they include things like tattoos and sharks, but I’ll leave that to him to start his own blog. Let’s just say, we hopefully have a road trip around Texas coming up!