Remind me again - Why do I live in Illinois?

I

H A T E

T H I S

W E A T H E R ! ! !

Hate it, with a passion.

As I've aged I've come to the realization that I'm not cut out to live in cold climates. I hate cold weather, I hate snow. I wasn't always like this, just within the past 15 years or so.

When I was a kid we would play for hours on the big snow pile in the parking lot near our house. When the city street crews would plow Main Street they would scoop up all the snow piles and strategically place them in various parking lots throughout town. These piles were HUGE. The whole group of kids in our neighborhood would be there playing King of the Mountain, digging tunnels, building forts, having snowball fights. All the fun things. Evidently we were immune to frostbite or were having so much fun that it just didn't matter.

Now thoughts of doing things like that make me shiver.

Last Saturday I went Christmas shopping and I had on pants and a long sleeve shirt, no coat even left my house that day. It was awesome. As I was out and about I saw tons of people who either had already put their Christmas decorations out or were in the process of doing so, it was all kind of surreal. I guess it's just been beaten into my brain that there has to be snow for it to be Christmas.

So, as I sit here on the eve of what could be the worst winter storm in this area ever (we're predicted to get anywhere from 8-20 inches of snow tonight/tomorrow) I'm faced with the reality that I will always live in Illinois and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it - unless I decide to divorce my husband and go on my own.