Baby it's cold outside.

Whenever I hear about the single digit wind-chills, I get all excited. I am a total sucker for extreme weather; the kind you need "technical" clothing for. The kind in which going out in jeans and a t-shirt would probably kill you in an hour or two. I just love that.

So tonight, just got in from dinner, and it's cold! I wore what I thought was my warmest coat: a thick wool number, pretty standard winter fare. I foolishly thought this would be enough and snubbed my layers rule in favor of less bulk. I should point out that I NEVER disregard my layers rule. And I will never do so again. It's a good rule.

NO layers. Wool coat. The wind somehow unlocked the secret to wool fabric and stabbed me repeatedly all over. I was being tortured. And yet, every second of it was delicious.

I have to say that since I've moved here, I have been moved figuratively as well. I've been swimming in the pleasure of my own feelings. Even when what I'm feeling is depression, it's a palpable depression. A succulent depression that I can feel to my bones. My body and mind are "all systems go," and boy, am I ever! I love being alive, and I love all the things that remind me of this. The stabbing cold! The sudden, lonely aptitude for manual labor! Disappointments and delights!

When I feel happiness, I am really feeling it. I am quite literally walking around with a smile on my face. Colors seem more vibrant, the sun seems brighter, my hair comes out really good, and of course my coffee seems to be of the perfect strength (instead of the weak crap they seem to have been getting away with).

Likewise, with the sadness, my apartment sounds emptier. I wake up with the day pressing down on me. The air seems thicker, the echoes seem louder, my feet fall heavy on the wooden floors.

I delight in the misery. And the joy. And right now, I am feeling joy. I am warming up with a cup of hot cocoa, NOT the swiss miss crap. Please. I said hot cocoa, not hot corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oils. I am sipping this and about to head back into my little mini-living room area, where I will sink into my sofa and give myself a warm cuddle in front of my faux-fireplace.

Right now, nothing is better than this. Oh wait. I guess if it were snowing...