Babe, I'm Leavin'

I must be on my way...The time is drawing near....

Emotionally, I am already in February. Technically, it's the shortest month, but it feels the longest. There's nothing good in February & it just drags & drags & stays & continues to be monotonous. It is winter at it's worst with gray skies, dirty snow & 1 stupid, overly-commercialized excuse (yeah, you heard me) that doesn't even give us a day off work & school.

I don't normally complain too much about winter, the snow, the cold, even the gas bill...but I'll tell you, this year, Old Man Winter can bite me! I'm done! I'm fed up! I want sunshine! I want to get the mail without putting on 14 layers of clothes & still tensing up as I brace against the -5 windchills...It's no longer a winter wonderland. It's all unforgiving, frozen wasteland! It's documented fact. http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/snowiest-cities-in-america.html 
I live a commuter's distance from there. It's dismal this time of year.

I think I have SAD. You know, Seasonal Affective Disorder. I just feel all blahhhhh. Motivation is at an all-time low. Alright, I haven't completely withdrawn from people, but I debate with myself about how badly I actually want to go out. I think it's because I literally do not want to go outside....It's bone-chilling.

Look closely- that's my backyard,
not parkland those deer are grazing in

They say global warming is melting the ice flows in the Arctic Circle & endangering the survival of wildlife. I really think we could bring the polar bears here for a month, & they'd survive just fine. In fact, they could fatten up on all the deer & coyotes that have grown to be nuisance populations. Of course, there's a question of how we keep them out of our way, keep them from eating us, & send them back....LoL!

I'm in a funk & I can't see the end of it anytime soon.

Now in November, when the cold really starts to settle in here in Northeast Ohio, I've got birthdays, Thanksgiving & a bump in the school routine to keep things going. In December, we have Christmas! All the shopping, baking, decorating, wrapping & general hubbub keeps me enlivened & the school vacation gives a long intermission. In January, you start a couple of days into the New year with a new routine, trying to live up to whatever resolution was made. There's MLK day off of school, end of quarter day off from school. It breaks up the doldrums.... but, here we are on that last day off school, the teacher in-service day for the end of the quarter, & here I sit listening to my neighbors snow-blow. I look out the window & see the gray, gray sky & the naked tree branches coated with white stuff that swirls through the air defiantly refusing to stop, the pine boughs that are drooping from it & I ache all over with the weight of it. Ugh.

I am reminded of the Dr, Suess book I used to read to my children all the time....My Many Colored Days. It's fabulous!! Get it for your toddlers & preschoolers if you don't already have it. It's all about moods. "Some days, of course, feel sort of brown & then I feel slow, & low, low down..." He says this of gray days, "Gray day, everything is gray. I watch, but nothing moves..." Well, you'll have to check it out for yourself. I mean, it's a baby book. I could type out all of it here as I think I know it by heart, get myself in some trouble, be sued for money I don't have, worry about it & I just don't want to do that.

I just want out! Get me out of Ohio. 4 days, a week of sunshine! It could sustain me until April or May when the sun might return to the region. Are 4 days really too much to ask? Where is the January thaw??? We usually get a week of sunshine around this time of year that melts the snow & the crocus bloom....where is it? That gives me hope of Spring, & life, & sustains me for the next 3-4 months. The snow is so deep right now, & still coming down, that the snowdrops can't bloom.

Where is my multimillion dollar lottery win? I want to go somewhere warm, somewhere with blue skies & palm trees. I want to wear sandals & sunglasses. I want a warm breeze & a fruity drink that may or may not contain alcoholic spirits.... I want to see bright, happy colors & smiling faces while listening to the sounds of laughter & life....

Sing with me--
Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya
Bermuda, Bahama, come on, pretty mama
Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go,
Jamaica, off the Florida Keys......


Anyone want to do that? Anyone want to hightail it out of here? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?