It's Cool

Winter is here! It's getting really cold in New York. Cold and windy. And dry. I've been sleeping with two pairs of pajamas on and three quilts. Finally the landlady turned on the heat for our house, and the radiator has been making sounds, but so far no noticeable warmth has come out of it. As soon as I get some free time I'm going to cover our drafty old windows in plastic to help with insulation.

I try to spend most of my day in places that are warm, like libraries and museums. Class is usually cold, and my school library is really cold. Church is sometimes cold and sometimes warm. Stores are warm, but they are too tempting. The subways and buses are generally warm, especially when they are packed, which they often are now that the weather is cold.

My new ritual is to drink a cup of hot chocolate after dinner. It makes a nice dessert, and it fills my whole body with warmth. I envy coffee drinkers because they get to walk around all day holding hot steamy cups of drink. Maybe I'll get a thermos and walk around with something hot in it. Like soup. Or herbal tea.

Stores are starting to fill their windows with winter displays. Anthropologie's windows are especially cute, with knitted covers on candlesticks and marshmallow snowflakes. Rockefeller Square has lights on all their trees already. I saw some suspiciously Christmas-looking candy at the grocery store. I guess it feels good to think that Christmas is just around the corner, because it kind of makes the winter seem not so bad, and not so long.

But who am I kidding? Its going to be cold in New York for a long long time! I'd better get used to it.