Brrrrrrr!

It's cold. Well that is really quite the understatement. It was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning.

New York is freezing. My second winter here. And I am still not used to it. I want to cry everytime I have to drag my ass out and wait for the that damn bus at 7:30 in the morning. My face turns to ice. If someone flicked it, it would shatter into thousands of pieces and bury into the snow below my feet.
And speaking of face, what is the deal with my skin in this weather? I am always ashy. And I've tried a slew of different cocktails and potions to stop this from happening. From lotion to babyoil to petroleum jelly to olive oil to mayonaisse (ok, not mayo-but I'm not opposed) and every combination and mixture of any and all of these. And to no avail. And then because I am so dry, I become itchy.
And that's not even to mention my crackling lips, made worse because I lick them-like L.L. Cool J. Or my nose that is so dry it bleeds.
It's absolute madness. Who the hells invented living in this type of climate when there are so many places in the world with which to live that has much milder winters?
The only reason I can think to live here is that my hair is hittin'. It's hot. It's mad hot. Not an ounce of humidity, no frizz, whatsoever. I can blow it or curl it and it looks the same when I come home 8 hours later. Down south there is always SOME humidity. Even in the dead of winter.

But it is love that keeps me here in this God-forsaken cold. My husband has a very good job here and also a child. Otherwise, we would be heading south as of last year.

My friend Peter and his wife Isabel and their daughter were here the last five days from Florida. They couldn't believe that it was even possible to be this cold. Peter brought a sports jacket and he told me he thought that would be fine. He was wrong. See, when you live in Florida you don't even understand the concept of a coat. Nobody owns one unless they visit these here northern parts on a regular basis. I bought my first coat ever just last year. A Floridian thinks that the layering is all you need to stay warm. If you throw on 3 or 4 sweatshirts, you're good to go. No, no, no people!
Here, that is what you put on under your coat. Well, I do. Most New Yorkers don't even do that. See they're used to it. They have a warm outfit plus a coat and that's it. I always take it to the next level, layering like a mug (for future reference-the polite way to say mother fucker).

The one upside to this particular winter, however is that we have a car this year so we can drive places instead of walking to subway stations and hailing taxis, while everyone else wants one too.

Right now I have on an undershirt, a long sleeve cotton turtle neck shirt and another turtle neck on top of that. I am waering two pairs of socks and when I go outside, I will put on my knee-length coat, my hat, my gloves and my legwarmers-total 80's style.
The sad part is....it hasn't even gone down to the single digits yet. Wahhhhh! Poor me. How will I ever survive?

Perhaps there will come the day where I will get used to this weather. My blood will be as thick as molasses. I'll just slip into my warm outfit and a coat and be good in the hood.