I love this background!

You don't have to like it, but I love it! I've been missing the snow lately. I'm not even sure why... From what I seem to remember it was quite cold and wet. I did love curling up under a warm blanket watching a storm though. There were also the times when it would be snowing at night when Mark was supposed to be coming home soon, and I'd worry that something would happen to him while he was driving. His vision at night is weird - we're not sure if it the contacts or not, but lights at night do weird things to him, and it's worse in the rain. So it would be snowing, 11:00 at night, and I'd be up wondering if he was going to be ok. Let's not mention that he's driven in the snow a LOT more than I ever have or will dream of doing. Still, I'd fight the urge to call and check up on him, knowing that just about the only way to make things worse would be to have him driving at night, in the snow, and having to talk on the phone calming down an, undeservedly, overly worried wife... So, I'd think about sending him a text message - but that's not any better :-) Eventually I'd realize that if I just waited he would get home safe, and strangely enough he always did! I know it was my worrying that helped!! ;)

Despite all that (or maybe a little bit because of it) I miss the change in seasons. I didn't have it growing up. I didn't even know there were seasons. I remember the first time I experienced 'fall.' I looked outside the apartment one day and realized that all the leaves were on the ground. It was a strange experience! They used to blow leaves in Southern California, but it never occurred to me they didn't do it all year round, or that all the trees might actually lose all of their leaves!! There's almost always many trees around here with some type of foliage on them.

I also remember going into a store looking for a window air conditioner. It was probably March or April and the guy in the store said 'I haven't seen those yet this year.' I truly did not understand what he was saying. It had been months since the new year, did they really do such a poor job of stocking their shelves that it would take 3-4 months to get stuff in!?! I was in silence for quite a while why I tried to process that and realize what it meant. It's a good thing that my Mom was there to help - she grew up with seasons and knew what he meant... Of course I didn't want to seem a fool and actually ask - so it took a while to really figure out what he was talking about, but a good year and half later I did eventually catch on :-)

So, strangely enough, I miss the snow right now - knowing that any that I get to experience will be brief at best this year. The background is helping temper some of that for me :-)