A Friendly Reminder

You might recall that I enjoy talking about the weather. You might also recall that I'm not a big fan of heat and humidity. When you combine these two characteristics the result is me complaining about the summer weather here in Texas. A lot.

We recently took a short vacation to Oregon and Washington (you can read about our adventures here, here, here, and here - it took me four blog posts to cover the trip) with about 35 of our friends and family members. I was frequently asked about Texas, our move, Tom's new job, the kids' school - you know, typical questions you ask someone you haven't seen in a while who's recently relocated across the country - and I answered every single question with, "it's hot." (Or at least some version of "it's hot" - depending on whether or not I'd had an adult beverage and who I was talking to I may or may not have added an expletive to that answer.)

I expect that my mom and sister, the two people I call most often, are getting pretty tired of listening to me gripe about the weather.

Example #1
Mom: Good morning! How are you today?
Erin: Hot.
Mom: (Ignoring my complaining.) Any plans for the day?
Erin: Getting hotter.
Mom: (No longer able to ignore my complaining.) Erin, you need to work on your attitude.
Erin: You're right, sorry. My plans for the day are to do seven loads of laundry.
Mom: Seven loads?! Why so many?
Erin: Everyone in my family has sweated through four outfits a day for the last three days. 48 outfits in three days equals seven loads of laundry.
Mom: (Rolls eyes.)

Example #2
Erin: How's the weather up there today?
Sara: We had a huge thunderstorm this morning, but now it's beautiful outside - the high for today is 80 degrees.
Erin: It's 107 here.
Sara: That's awful. What are you doing?
Erin: Hallie and I are at the park, but we're sitting in the car with the air conditioning running.
Sara: Ha. What are you guys really up to today?
Erin: No, really. We're at the park, sitting in the car with the air conditioning running.
Sara: Sounds like a fun day.
Erin: It is. It really is.

So yesterday, perhaps in a good-natured attempt to quell my complaining, my BIL sent me this video. It was filmed last December, while we were in Illinois visiting their family for Christmas. I had no idea he'd filmed me trying to warm up on that cold, snowy day, and when I watched the video for the first time yesterday I laughed out loud at how ridiculous I look.


(Sorry the video is so small - technical difficulties. You can also see it here.)

And while I think Jeff's intention, besides getting me to shut up about the weather, was to remind me how bitterly cold and vicious winters in the Midwest can be, all this video did was make me homesick for the winter weather I won't get to experience.