Tuesday 1 April 2008

Don't want to be my winter

It's finally arrived. That constant chill, hanging out persistently even on the sunniest spots of the pavement. Jeans and t-shirt weather has long gone, shorts rejected and stuffed into dark corners of the clothes shelves a week ago. Fingers and toes starting to get numb during the day. Finally gave in and took down all the neatly packed away winter coats, socks, beanies. So much wool. So much weight. Still resisting the electric heater: semi denial.

Last winter was a bit of a disaster overall, which might have been expected considering it was the first for this particular sunny islander. Wasn't expecting just how utterly cold and harsh and actually quite miserable it was. Finally understood
seasonal depression. After nineteen years of taking it entirely for granted that going outside meant sun and warmth and comfort like a hug, suddenly its just not there. Unimaginable. In school, the crazy girl who'd choose to stay in the sun for hours if need be, that was me. Fortunately its largely sunny down under, cannot begin to fathom living in a gloomy country for more than a few weeks.
On a brighter note, seem to have got a grip this time around. Touch wood. Use a support system, keep the neurons whizzing. It's a case of watching the extremes, keeping the slips from turning into slides. Sleeping in is okay, eighteen hours a day for three weeks straight, mmm, not so much. To be fair, it was a accumulation of a kazillion different badly timed factors/incidents/judgements, as such things tend to be.
Autumn is so pretty. Trees turning a whole range of warm colours. Crispy, curly leaves floating down. Just the right temperature: cold enough to feel minty clean, but warm enough to be snug in a couple of layers. And you can still feel the sun properly. The campus is basically a garden with a few buildings built on the sidelines, so it's gorgeous in the summer, breathtaking in the autumn, bare and harsh during the winter.
Game plan is to breathe in as much as possible while its good, avoid intense Snow Patrol songs and laugh lots.

7 comments:

Jane Doe said...

I'm sorry... I just lived through m first winter and I was the grumbliest I've ever been. At least you can look forward to snow and how beautiful it looks on on the tops of trees and covering the ground and warm hot chocolate....

T said...

ugh we're just getting out of winter, thank god. im curious, what does snow patrol do for you?

Sunshine Junkie said...

Jane Doe - hehe... the first is the worst apparently, jolly well hope so! it doesnt snow where i am, but yes definitely lots of hot chocolate and tea etc will be consumed!

T - mmm... i love snow patrol, their songs are amazing, but for some reason spark intense emotional reactions. might be some subconscious connection to the greys anatomy episode 'chasing cars' came in, its just ridiculous. not necessarily sad emotions at first, but intense generally tends to whizz off in unwanted directions. wierd, i know. thus the decision to steer away :D too tiring.

T said...

oh god i know exactly what you mean!! one time i was listening to chasing cars and i crawled into bed and cried for like an hour. i felt like such a dumbass after. lol.

Darwin said...

I don't mind winter so much if I know that there is spring and summer waiting at the other side for me. It's when summer refuses to happen, when the rains refuse to stop, the skies refuse to go from grey to blue, even during the summer - that is when I want to shoot myself. Last year we only had juse ONE WEEK of decent 'summer' weather, after that it just started raining again. Glasgow weather really sucks.

Sunshine Junkie said...

T - whoa! its comforting to know i'm not the only one :D i'm still trying to pinpoint why exactly tho, what'd you think? intensity? his voice? reminds me of that line from 'semi-charmed life' - ' i believe... the four right chords can make me cry'. er.. yea, i'm a lyrics geek :D

Darwin - oh noo! thats dreadful. but at least there are insanely cheap tickets that'll get you to sunny european countries for the weekends! jealous.

T said...

i think its the chorus, the 'if i lay here' part. its like what every girl is looking for. gah, i think im going soft!