Hello again! Thank you very much for the birthday wishes– I had a lovely day, ate cake, and oh! In case you didn't see it, I had an article featured over on BlogHer, about how I think the show "Teen Mom" is ruining our youth. Go check it out!
I will of course be continuing the birthday celebration into the weekend, as Stephan has volunteered to hook up my XBox Kinect and play that dance game with me.
Hopefully the playing of this game will not result in a trip to the emergency room, because when I dance…..oh boy. The spindly, flailing limbs! The extreme Muppetude! Look out!
Speaking of me Muppeting out, what else have I been doing, besides celebrating my birthday? I have been shoveling snow, of course! When we moved back to the East Coast a year or so ago, I believe I mentioned a few times how much I enjoy shoveling, and several people (east coasters, of course) were quick to inform me that this was just a passing fancy, that I would surely get sick of it by the next winter, and that they all had bad memories of their childhoods from being forced to shovel snow as punishment.
Well, here it is next winter, and I have to say, I think I am the only person who actually LOVES snow, including the shoveling. I LOVE IT, people. It is like, the perfect mixture of exercise and the practice of Zen for me, and when it snows, I actually look forward to going outside, putting on my "Crazy With Determination Face" (if you are a Capricorn you know this face well), and shoveling like a maniac for an hour or two. The dog really likes to help by putting on HIS Crazy Face and running back and forth in the path I've just shoveled. It's all very David Lynch.
Maybe it's the fact that I grew up where it was hot all the time and so I haven't had the chance to get sick of it, but honestly, I am totally in a better mood when it's cold, or rainy, or snowing, or generally just not sunny all the time. Is this an actual disorder? Unlike in California where you could run five miles in the sunshine and be like "Hey, I ran five miles, hooray," there is something SO COOL about the fact that you can shovel snow for two hours and then be able to DRIVE YOUR CAR right through that space and go do things, right? Exercise with purpose? Amazing! Transcendent! Revelatory! I enjoy work like this so much, I was thinking maybe I should become a construction worker, or maybe a farmer, since construction work assuredly would involve hammers and such, and probably wouldn't mix with my Crazy Face, right?
Last weekend it snowed a bunch, so of course before the shoveling began we went out and made a snowman. The photo above was taken moments before Baxter ripped off his arm and ran away with it. Side note: why is that dog such a freeloader? Can't he help with anything? All he does is eat, sleep, and ruin the snowman.
Oh wait, that's not true. He also poops, and scares away deer and skunks, and totally has my back in the whole "Making My Crazy Face" thing.
Perhaps after the weekend I will post some pictures of myself playing that dance game or shoveling with my Crazy Face. Or maybe not– I do still want you to respect me as a serious writer, after all. I'm SERIOUS!
