I need a thaw

Iowa got hit pretty hard this past week with a wicked blizzard. Katie and I counted fifty cars in the ditches in between highway thirty and iEighty on the way home from Ames this afternoon, three days after it hit. Craziness [not to mention the guy getting out of his car at gunpoint from the cops... wtf?]. I've written that I love winter, and it's true, but this one has to end soon 'cos it's been brutal on me.

Call it 'seasonal affective disorder' or 'winter doldrums' but I just haven't been myself, most notable in the social arena. I've spent too much time by myself and living in my head, and I've lost some of my social skills. This isn't to say that the past four months or so haven't been completely awful. The time that I have spent with my friends has been, for the most part, terrific. If only I could persuade myself to join them more often. But in my own selfishness I choose to be a recluse, which only makes things worse.

The remedy is that I need to get out more, and on more than one level. I need to stop avoiding friends on the weekends and get out in the social realm, even if only for a couple more hours. Secondly, I need to get out and be active. In the past few weeks I've been itching to get out and run again [even if my knee is hurting]. But this snow/cold/global warming/tundra keeps me from it. That should change this week when I sign up to workout at the Y. Some endorphins could do me well.

I'm not entirely convinced that this will strike at the root of the problem, but it could be a good start. I'm not necessarily looking forward to summer, but I'm starting to look forward to it not being winter anymore. Anyway, to provide more substance here are some lyrics from a fitting song, Pedro the Lion's "The Longest Winter," enjoy. you have my love.

Is it special when you're lonely? Will you spend your whole life in a studio apartment with a cat for a wife? The seasons, when they call you, do you barricade the door? Are you stubborn, stubborn, stubborn to the core? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Then the longest winter is on her way, you called her without knowing it, but now it's too late.