Fighting Cabin Fever: a battle for the soul

So it's been snowing like crazy here for the last two months. Straight. Every Saturday like clockwork. Huzzah. And you know how it is. The first snow is all "Yay, snow! I'm so happy! Ooh, look it's sooooo pretty when it sparkles!", etc. Don't judge me, you've all done it.

But now it's February and the pretty sparkling snow has turned into so much grey sludge, and it's not so pretty anymore. To quote the wise words of a dear friend, "I am officially disenchanted with snow."

With the February sludge comes the inevitable Cabin Fever. You know the symptoms: tiredness, mood swings, the insatiable urge to do SOMETHING. I usually know I've got it when I start pulling out my shorts and making outfits, then sighing, because I know I can't wear them.

But how can we cure ourselves of this? Is there a cure, or can we do nothing but wait it out? I say there are ways of fending off the winter mopes. Wanna know them? Good, cuz I was gonna tell you anyway :)

The easiest way to battle cabin fever is to go outside. Go ice skating or sledding. Build a snowman or have a snowball fight....and all of these things are, like, twice as fun with a group of friends! Sure we're all adults here, and a snowball fight isn't exactly the definition of "mature". whatever. Just try it. The best part is, these activities are all free, except the ice skating...but if you have your own skates, it's still really cheap.

Another outdoors activity would be to shovel the snow. I know. Yuck. But I don't mean shovel your driveway and section of sidewalk in front of your house. I challenge you to get out there and help some people who can't do it themselves. It could be a little old lady or someone who's out of town, or it could be a large family of small children with no time to shovel their driveway. Helping out like this just makes you feel so great, and if you get a group of friends and canvas the neighborhood, it can be counted as a service project.

But what if you hate being in the cold weather, or you've done all this and it just didn't work? No problem! Do something inside instead. My favorite things to do on a snowy day are to spend an afternoon wandering around the art museum, or going to see a movie(usually followed by an afternoon spent wandering around the mall....I'm a girl, it happens. I will not be ashamed.) Another(and way cheaper) option would be to go to a friend's house and just hang out. But I warn you, serious bonding time and minor shinanegans WILL occur.

Even if you don't want to leave your house, you can still do something to keep your mind off the weather. Call up all your friends and have them over for movies, popped corn and board games....it's called an impromptu party, and they're super fun! Seriously, nothing drives away cabin fever better than surrounding yourself with your best friends and doing something fun!

And just think, before you know it, Spring will be here and you can wear those shorts again!

I need a vacation.

So here in Ohio we've been experiencing some pretty gnarly weather....for like a month. Seriously, the weather man is comparing this year to the blizzard of '78.

I really like snow....well, I don't mind it. Hey, I live in Ohio, I lost right to complain about bad weather, but this is getting ridicules. Last month I got snowed into my house for like five days. I got so much homework done you wouldn't believe it! When the weather fist started turning bad I was actually kind of glad! I knew I was going to be able to spend some quality time at home, doing all the things I had put off because of "more important" things that kept coming up. The first several days of our first snowstorm I was perfectly content at home. I got all caught up on my homework, I cleaned/re-arranged my room, and I tried some new hairstyles I'd found on youtube. It was great!

But then I got the opportunity to go for a job interview, and I was sooooo excited! This job was literally an answer to prayer! I'd been out of a job for several months and I was starting to stress out major. I got all ready for my interview and I looked fabulous, I might add ;) But that was the first day of our second blizzard....which meant my interview got pushed back almost a week! And because I was already a nervous wreck slowly convincing myself that if I didn't get a job soon I'd have no choice but to drop out of college and get a job working the drive-thru at McDonalds where I would soon loose my friends and my reputation....the snow was already getting to me, in case you can't tell.

Anywho, I finally got shoveled out and had my interview and got that job. Now I have a steady, well-paying job, and I couldn't be more grateful! But we have since had like two more mini-blizzards since then, and because my job requires people to actually come in and give us business, I have been call off work as often as I've gone in. Normally I'd be like "YAY! Day off! Time to spend my hard-earned money. Mall, here I come!!!!!!" But when one gets called off work because of bad weather, one cannot leave the house because nothing else is open because the city has established a level three emergency where one would get arrested if one were to try to go anywhere. So guess what I got to do on all my days off! Homework. Yippy skippy.

I am so blessed to have my job, and I thank God like every five seconds, but I work every day except Wednesdays(which I have off because of a school study group) and Sundays. I went from too much time on my hands to no time at all, and I'm still trying to get a hang of the whole doing school and work in the same day thing. I finally feel like I'm getting in a groove, which makes me very happy. I was getting pretty frustrated about going days without doing my homework because I ran out of hours in my day. My only problem with that is, until this becomes habit, I get freaking exhausted running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

I'm starting to think I'm suffering from what is commonly known as cabin fever. Translation: I need a vacation. A vacation from winter and full schedules....and that was totally a rant that had nothing to do with anything. Sorry.