First Winter

Let's talk about something not so serious, for once.

Say, my reaction to my first ever "first snowfall."

I'm a bit late in recording this. The day the snow first started falling - and it's been falling ever since, even as I write - was Monday, around 12:30. I know this because I was extremely sick that weekend (I probably slept for 20 hours on Sunday), so due to that, I decided to skip my Intro to Chemistry class, which goes from 12:00 to 12:50. I feel justified in skipping, because I was still recovering; if I had been in high school my parents would’ve called me in and it would be an excused absence, and I barely take notes in Chemistry anymore. That’s how basic the ideas are.

In any case, after lunch on Monday a friend offered to give me some of her cough medicine that she had, so I headed back to my dorm and over to her room. Cough medicine tastes a lot worse than I remember, but that’s beside the point. I had taken it, and we were just chilling because I was skipping and she didn’t have class, when I noticed some milkweed puffs outside her window.

Yes.

I thought snow was milkweed puffs.

It was about 10 minutes later when I realized it was snow, when I saw it piling up sparsely on the ground.

Monday:

Yesterday:

Before you judge me, I’ve seen snow before. I’ve gone skiing, sledding (both the plastic and dogsled variety), and snowman-building before. I’ve lived with the extreme cold, not the 45° weather back in California, but actual negative digits (albeit not for very long). I didn't know what to look for, though, the day it started snowing, because when I've been in those environments, I arrived when snow was already on the ground. The flakes went along with the setting. This time, the sun was shining, the trees were bright red and yellow and fully still having their leaves, the grass was thriving, and there were girls in skirts and guys in shorts. Cue snow. Without a blanket of white already on the ground, I just couldn't process for the longest time that I was seeing snow and not something more likely with the environment, like milkweed puffs or pillow-filler.

(Because that stuff goes perfectly with the environment instead. I don't know.)

I was properly glued to the window after that. I don't know why my friend didn't even get off her bed to take a look at this school year's first snow.

I've been hearing a lot of comments about out-of-state students ever since it started snowing though. Not very nice comments, either. People who grew up in this kind of snow environment are laughing at others (mostly Californians, I've observed) for being surprised/excited at it. They say things like, "It's a lot colder than you're used to, huh?" and "You signed up for it when you decided to attend here," and "It's so funny watching people react to this snow - I mean, it's just snow." The reason it's pissing me off is because it's patronizing and degrading. Of course I'm going to be excited about snow, I hardly ever get to see it. I'd like to watch you react to an ocean beach, with tide pools and everything you don't get at a lake, and I'll just be standing there letting you know I think your excitement is stupid because I go there twice a week and I've seen it all countless times before.

But still:

Fun fact: foxes have very acute hearing, and sit quietly listening for mice under the snow. When they hear one, they do this peculiar high leap into the air in order to avoid walking on the snow and creating reverberations the mice can hear/feel. Without this (hilarious) leap, it'd be much more likely that the mice would be alerted to the fox's deadly, dignified hunt. I remember learning this a long time ago, and didn't do any research on it today, so forgive me if I messed something up. 

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Mind-Blowers (Because Why Not):

• What if gray is just a color we are all colorblind to?
• You can't change the volume of the voice in your head. YOU CAN SCREAM. You can whisper.  It's all the same volume.
• Did humans invent or discover math? What about time?
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa is in Italy. It's italicized. 
• Which way do cyclops wing their eyeliner?
• Dog goes woof, cat goes meow, I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. Cow goes moo, the chemicals
• Every year, you pass the anniversary of your death without knowing it.
• A bicycle is an acoustic version of a motorcycle, and bagels are acoustic donuts.
• What language do deaf people first think in?
• There's no real reason for the alphabet to be in that order.
• Bathtubs are reverse boats.
• You will never invent a new color visible to humans.

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Thanks to Disney's new movie Big Hero 6, I found a new favorite song,

Top of the World, by Greek Fire