"We'll be warm again in finals week...of next semester."

Winter in Logan. The joy. Today it snowed. Actually snowed for the first time. The stuff is on the ground and falling from the sky and actually sticking this time. Although I knew when I decided to move here that it would be brutal, I was rather unprepared for some of the inconveniences besides just freezing. There is the matter of needing my hands. Already today my fine motor skills have gone down the toilet. Writing, forget it. And don't even think about handing me a computer unless I've been indoors for a good half hour. I have been dropping pencils, notebooks, flipping hair ties at people's faces when the original goal was actually to put the thing in my hair, and concentrating really hard in order to text. My hair also explodes in any type of moisture, so basically my hair looks like all those guys in Lord of the Rings who never take showers and don't own a brush. Or a blow dryer. Or a straightener. It's a disaster. But even if I forget the hair, (which I won't. The Medusa effect must be stopped, I tell you!), moisture can have some seriously negative ramifications. Due to the extensive puddle system all across campus, my pants were soaked to my knees around six tonight. When I was walking home from class with Katie and Amanda, we hit the huge dip in the sidewalk right before you get to the crosswalk, (You all know the one I'm talking about, right? That epically large one? Yeah. That one.) which is of course now filled with with water that penguins would think was freezing. Did we all stop right in front of the freezing puddle of death and just stare at it for a minute? Of course. And then Katie and Amanda went around in the street. But I figured, hey, I can't feel my feet anyway, so what does it matter? When walking through ice cold water doesn't make it any worse, you know you're in trouble. No joke. And my feet were completely numb, except for the right pinky  toe and joint, which I injured a few months ago when Katie and I were playing soccer in the hallway. I am pretty sure it is broken because I can't actually move it anymore, and it doesn't really bend. Conveniently enough, I tripped on my way into the HPER this morning, and this painful little annoyance, which I have just freshly injured once more, decided not to go numb when the rest of my feet did. No, that faithful little stab of pain ever step or two was back. That's just mean. But besides being mean, this part also gets dangerous. Those of you familiar with USU campus will recall that all the buildings on the south end of campus have the metal edges on the concrete stairs outside. These metal edges are quite easy to slip on, especially when it's wet and you are as clumsy as me. I almost died outside the Family Life building today falling down those stairs. Another thing that makes me nervous is the hill on the way home. At this point, I'd be hard pressed to find a place I haven't tripped. That's just sort of how I go through life- falling off of stuff. But I thought I might die coming home from SI tonight. Let's recap. One: I am shivering as it is "below-zero freezing", and this takes my concentration off of balancing, which is actually something I concentrate on. hard. Don't judge. Two:  It is dark I am having trouble seeing the branches that stick out, so I am getting hit by wet plant matter on a pretty regular basis. Three: my feet are numb which makes balancing even harder, and the ground is wet and slippery. Four: It's cold, right? So Shane, who normally walks faster anyway because he is so dang tall, is walking fast. That was okay with me at the top of the hill when he asked if I wanted him to slow down, but a little further down the hill gets a lot steeper and I am doing a little half running half skipping little prance trying to keep up with him. (You know, I never felt short until now. But, oh, I do when I am walking anywhere with Shane.) I was so proud of myself for not falling down the hill. But then,this is just the first day of a very long, cold, wet, numb, slippery season. I could die. The solution: Either carry a little container of ice melt with me and pour as I go, which could possibly be expensive, or get a little plastic roll up sled and just slide home down the Hill. Perhaps an umbrella could also help with the hair dilemma. Either way, I better adapt quick, because it will be a long winter. As Katie said today, "We'll be warm again in finals week...(awkward pause while Amanda and I try to figure out why it would be warm in the middle of december)...of next semester.( Oh. May. Great.)