freeeeezing a**

I've been back in Texas for four days and I think I'm just now thawing out from my weekend in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. When we trotted our happy little selves into the mountain village, it was 16 degrees ... at 3:30 in the afternoon.

I said good-bye to any notion of being warm ever again.

Actually, I was warm at moments during our weekend visit. Moments when I was on the top bunk and it was nearly 90 degrees (possible exaggeration) in the bedroom. Then I began to thaw out and my nose was un-cold. And I wanted to stay there forever because as soon as my feet hit the floor, I knew the chill was coming.

As you can tell, we didn't really go prepared for 16 and nine degree weather. We had jackets. And scarves. I did, though, grab mom's heavy farm coat at her insistance before we left. I'm glad I did for the extreme cases where the temperature plummeted from nine to four.

Four degrees? Really?!

Completely unnecessary.

Last night I took a shower for the simple reason that I was (still) cold. The chill is in my bones, I swear.

I swear.

I also swear that my New Year's Eve was spent in a basement in a cabin on a mountain in Cloudcroft. I was surrounded by 17 and 19-year-olds in trashy tights and knee-high boots (as if it weren't four degrees outside!) and boys who wanted to know if anyone had weed for sale.