Super cold and WW

I walk to work in the mornings. Did you know that? I feel like I talk about it all the time, so you probably do. The last 2 mornings have been interesting, because before that I didn't have to worry about snow and ice, it was pretty clear. But since Blizzard 2010 last week, it's been ca-razy!

Most days I enjoy my walk, but sometimes not as much. My favorite things about walking are the following:

• Timpa-freaking-nogos. That mountain never bores me. And my walks are northbound, so win win. It always looks beautiful in the mornings. But not quite as beautiful as it looks at 5:00 in the evening, right when I'm leaving work.
• The group of junior high boys that I pass and say hello to every day. Lots of days they're across the street, but they wave at me until I see them and I wave back. I like those boys.
• Listening to This American Life.
• Moving my body in the morning. If it weren't a necessity, I would absolutely not do it.

My least favorite things about walking are the following:

• The preparation. Since it's cold, I have to bundle up, and wear different shoes than for the work day. For example, today I am wearing a dress, tights, and flats. I brought a cardigan too, in case I get cold. To walk here I put on leggings, wool socks, my running shoes, a hoodie, my coat, gloves, and a hat. Then I get to work and have to take it all off. Well, not ALL of it, you sicky.
• Even though it's cold, I get hot, so by the time I get there, I'm sweating.
• I have to wake up earlier because I have to leave earlier. I HATE waking up. This morning I told Chris that if we ever have another car I will never wake up in the 6:00 hour again. I won't. I won't do it.
• The cold. Which brings me to the real reason I even started this post.

This morning was SO incredible frigid. My nose was running, so I sniffed, and could feel frozen-ness in my nose. My breath practically obscured my vision, like a little cloud hovering right in front of my face. My cheeks didn't thaw out for about an hour.

I was curious about the temperature, but I didn't want to call Time and Temp, because I was listening to Ira Glass. So I had the brilliant idea to text Cha Cha and ask what the current temperature was in Provo Utah. I got a text back, and do you know what it said? 36 degrees. I obviously stopped right there and laughed out loud. Because either that Cha Cha employee thinks I'm an idiot, or Google is an idiot for telling the Cha Cha people that. 36 degrees! I would have stripped down to shorts for 36 degrees! So naturally I had to call the actual authority on the temperature, 373-9120. And you know what they said? 12 degrees. That was more like it. I knew it was something like that.

After my temperature discovery I continued my walk. The episode of This American Life I'd been listening to ended, so I put my ipod on shuffle. And I realized how much music can really affect you. Of course I know music can affect you, but this morning was a particularly affecting experience. The first song that came up was this. And for the first minute of it, I was feeling all vulnerable and like someone was maybe going to attack me with an army. I thought it might be Braveheart, but I didn't want to look--too cold. And scared. But really, I looked behind me. As if some guy with a sword would be galloping toward me on a horse. But then during the last part of the song, I realized for certain that it was from Braveheart, and I felt relieved by the upbeat-ness of the music and the emergence of bagpipes. They're a comforting sound. And I knew that as long as William Wallace was around, I was safe. Unless William Wallace was really Mel Gibson, because I don't think I'd feel too safe with him these days. You know?