Winter Anxiety.

Since last winter, I’ve been fantasizing about moving away from New Jersey to a place where I’d never have to see snow again or at the very least have some idea what the weather will be every day.  Last year only ranked as the 14th worst winter on record but felt much worse. I actually lived through the worst winter in the state in terms of snowfall (1995-96), but that year didn’t traumatize me like last winter did. I was in college back then so maybe that was it.

Considering it was 20 years between that worst winter and the one that had me itching to flee the state, odds were that maybe I would be able to handle whatever this winter threw at me since moving to a warmer climate wasn’t exactly practical. It made more sense to keep my expectations realistic and attempt to go with the flow.

As my Facebook feed reminds me daily, the cold and the snow are typical in this region and therefore I should just settle down with my winter angst. I do expect a certain amount of bad weather and, in fact, I’ve been pretty quiet until now about how frozen my fingers are and how tired I am of wearing so many layers. But after Mother Nature taunted me as she did last week, I’m done. I give up. I’m out.

I’m not a flexible person. I like to have a plan and stick to it, but given how unpredictable the weather is, I try not to make too many plans.  Since I’m trying to meet the universe half way here and not put unrealistic expectations it, I think it would be super awesome if maybe the universe could get off my back for a change. You see, I had plans last week and the weather decided to mess with me.

First up on Thursday was a focus group which was an opportunity to earn some actual money. The location of the event was about 20 miles from my house and no sooner were the details all firmed up did the 5-day forecast start to not look so hot. I don’t put much stock in longer-range outlooks though so I decided to pretend I wasn’t stressed. Plus I had bigger fish to fry.

My kid’s birthday party was scheduled for Saturday. 17 kids and more than a dozen adults were supposed so to gather at my house for a Pokemon celebration. I still had a million things to do that didn’t make sense to do until closer to the party.  With close to half a foot of “wintry mix” anticipated for Saturday afternoon, I started sending texts to see if moving the party was a viable option. It was not.

I’ve had virtually nothing to do for weeks that couldn’t be easily rescheduled. Suddenly, now that I had obligations scheduled and I had been praising the weather for not being a giant jerk so far, it was making me regret ever saying anything nice.

Thankfully, after 24 hours of watching the predicted snow accumulations go up and down for Thursday morning (and subsequently wondering if I was going to earn that money or not), there ended up being no precipitation at all. Saturday went from 5″-8″ to 3″-5″, then to less than 1″, only to have 5″ or so fall on Friday night and nothing on Saturday. Sure, I went through half a bottle of Tums from the stress, but at least things worked out.

Then there was a blizzard warning.

I’m over this. I think I’ll use my snow day to plan my escape from the Northeast.

18 thoughts on “Winter Anxiety.

  1. Southern Angel

    i live in Kentucky and the thought of 3 foot of snow for ya’ll in a day makes me antsy for you. But see Mother Nature is wicked here as well. IF we have decent snow at the beginning of winter, you know 5 or 6 inches probably spread out then it will usually be decent the rest of the winter. BUT if the end of the previous year left us feeling like winter had bypassed us, then I know the first 2 months of the next year we are doomed. One year my kids went back to school a total of 3 days in January. While we rarely have the amount of snow ya’ll are looking at we get the lovely ice then snow then more ice, on backroads that have sunshine piped in. I figure February we are going to get nailed, this winter has been teasing us. If it is any consolation last year the only state without snow was Hawaii..

    1. michellelongo Post author

      Thankfully we didn’t get the huge storm in NJ that they predicted, but it was still an annoyance. They had predicted a bad winter and we’ve been really lucky until January. I guess I was taking it all for granted!

    1. michellelongo Post author

      I’m so glad I have you to complain about the weather with. That picture of Nathan is from last year when the snow mounds were 6 feet high in most places. Fun times…

  2. Ice Scream Mama

    I have basically accepted that I will spend the majority of the next months housebound. I can’t take the cold at all. I’m hoping I don’t have to leave the northeast before my kids have all graduated high school. Hope the Pokemon party was a success. I’ve had my share of those as well. And very cute picture.

    1. michellelongo Post author

      I have a space heater in my office that I keep set at 80 degrees. I’m still wearing a sweatshirt sitting next to it. I really *hate* being cold! If I didn’t have a young child, I’d be off this coast so fast everyone’s heads would spin. Alas, here I am… (Party was great. As soon as I get around to it, there will be a post about it!)

    1. michellelongo Post author

      Thanks about Nathan 🙂 I wish I had a treadmill but now that I know it doesn’t work to cure insanity I probably won’t ever buy one. I’m thinking I need one of those sunlamp thingies so that I can pretend it’s summer though.

  3. wcdameron

    I can’t really make a comment about the weather because I have escaped all of the bad stuff by running to different parts of the world. But, I feel your pain. I hope California is a part of your world very soon. 🙂

    1. michellelongo Post author

      I can’t imagine ever missing snow. It’s seriously only pretty for about five minutes.

    1. michellelongo Post author

      I used to feel that way – hating hot more than hating cold. But now that I have Reynaud’s Syndrome and I can’t feel my fingers more months than I can, I’d rather be hot. I’m okay with giving up a season I hate, too 🙂

  4. cynkingfeeling

    I hate not being able to make plans due to the weather. And there’s nothing to do – no festivals, no going to the park. It’s just too damn cold. Already going a bit stir crazy here.

    1. michellelongo Post author

      Right! You can’t plan to do anything and even if you could, there’s nothing to do (that doesn’t cost a fortune, that is). I long to be able to go outside, go to a park or for a hike, anything just to not be in this house without freezing to death. I’m really hopeful that spring will come early and we won’t be stuck in winter until April like last year.

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