Northern Girl

I'm a Northerner born and bred and spent most of my life kicking around the Midwest.  I have lived for significant chunks of time in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.  What these three states have in common is long, snowy, cold winters.  Now I'm not saying my favorite season is winter because it's not.  My seasonal preferences are: spring, fall, winter, summer.  Although I love the blazing color of sugar maples on a crisp autumn day, spring wins by a nose because the days are getting longer and light cheers people up.

Last year was my first winter in South Carolina.  There was a week of winter weather with about an inch or two of snow on the ground.  People made snowmen, angels in the snow and sledded down golf course greens on blow-up mattresses.  Fun!

Normal life came to a screeching halt.  Nobody in our neighborhood was foolish enough to try to go to work except Jerry.  (When he got there, he found the place was closed.)  There was no bread or milk to be found in any area grocery stores; UPS delivery and the Post Office both took three-day vacations.  People frolicked in the winter wonderland, just like all the kids and kids-at-heart do on the first snowfall of each and every year up north.  People in the know told me that this was "an unusually cold winter."  It seemed perfect to me. 

This winter it's been unseasonably warm throughout lots of the country, including here.  Last weekend was our first cold snap.  It was 42 degrees out when my friend texted me, "Is it cold enough for you now?"  How do I respond to that?  "Yes" if you mean "Is it cold enough to wear a jacket."  If you want to see me dig out my winter coat though, it is going to have to get considerably colder -- say zero and windy.  Even then I probably won't keep it buttoned.  If it gets to ten below, I will skip my morning walk, unless it's sunny out.  Sunshine always makes the day seem warmer.

The northern girl key to comfort in the cold is layering.  Leggings under jeans, undershirts under shirts under sweaters.  Cotton socks under wool ones in  lined boots.  Scarf under coat with mittens and hat.  (If it's frigid -- or you're going ice skating, snowmobiling or ice fishing -- you can add insulated underwear, a fleece vest, gloves under your mittens and a ski mask.)  Now I've revealed my cold coping strategies, could some southern woman kindly return the favor and explain to me how you seem so comfortable in the high heat and humidity of summer?

Formal, but he likes to party

The difference between the north and the south is easy. Their high is our low all winter long. In the summer, our low is their high.  In between these seasons in either direction (both geographically and time-wise) is when it's going to be the most fun living anywhere.



**Jerry wears shorts and tee shirts year round, so the opinions in this blog post are not necessarily those espoused by this entire household.** 

Jimmy Buffett and Me

Who doesn't like Jimmy Buffett?  His distinctive sound is happy and his lyrics are whimsical.  I've been a vegetarian for thirty-five years now and even I salivate when I listen to "Cheeseburger in Paradise."  Ya gotta love an artist who is able to make a song about a hamburger with a slice of cheese on it into a catchy tune.

Most of the time, I have an internal radio playing inside my head.  I don't know who makes the song selections, but generally I enjoy the playlist and when I wake up humming Jimmy Buffett, all's right with the world.  (The morning our dog died, I woke up hearing "Happy Trails to You" then got the phone call from the animal hospital.  Creepy, right?)

Yesterday I had a couple of guys about our son's age here putting down wood flooring, so I popped on "Songs you Know by Heart."  They turned up their noses and groaned.  Turns out that Jimmy Buffett is old people music.  Who'd a guessed?  They wanted to hear a band called Gogol Bordello. 

This group includes a violin and an accordion and Jimmy Buffett is old people music?  People stopped taking accordion lessons before I was in junior high.  (No offense Dianne.)  I had never heard of this band before -- now there's a shocker! -- but I discovered that the lead singer, Eugene Hütz, has a fun energy and I couldn't help humming along the third time I played "Start Wearing Purple."  Eugene wears colorful clothes and has decorated his guitar in collage, so he's got that going for him, too.  Plus I saw a video with Madonna singing "La Isla Bonita, Lela Pala Tute" which was a blend of her song and one of theirs, so clearly they have achieved commercial success and good for them on that one; it's a difficult business to break into.  Their sound is distinctive and brooding - gypsy music is how Wikipedia aptly describes it.

Gypsy music is fun for a change, but I still prefer island music.  Josh used to sing along with "Volcano" when he was a little guy and I guess our family all just grew up listening to it. 

Maybe it isn't really old people music at all -- maybe Jimmy just has strong regional appeal.  We live in the south now and people take sunny days for granted here.  Maybe southerners, not having lived in climates where snow shovels outnumber golf clubs, just can't get the appeal of mentally going somewhere where you don't have to dress in layers -- as Jimmy says, "I gotta go where it's WARM."

Or, it could just be old people music.  Jimmy would probably be okay with that.  Guess what?  There are more of US than there are of THEM.  And, now that the last kid has moved out, we are finally in charge of our own music selections.