A Southerner's Guide to Surviving the Cold

Today marks what I'd count as our first true "blizzard". It's been snowing since about 11am and it looks like it's not going to stop until the early morning hours, and might even start up again tomorrow. There's probably about 5-6" on the ground now, with another 3-5" to come overnight.

Last winter our strategy was to hide from the winter. We stayed inside and hated the cold. But, come about April, when it was still so cold, we were going stir-crazy. So this winter my goal is to embrace the cold. Every morning I step out my door and say enthusiastically in my mind, "I love the cold!" as I start my march to the bus stop. We're also planning activities to help us enjoy the winter weather. We might as well take advantage of it while we're here!

In Norway there is a saying, "There are no bad winters, only bad clothes." I am agreeing with that more each day. So here are some suggestions for how to dress.

The first trick is this: now is not the time for vanity. You might look cute in that thin peacoat and the ankle boots but that's not going to keep you warm. So embrace the "I'm wearing a sleeping bag" look, and I promise you won't regret it.

The second trick is this: if you can see anything besides your eyeballs when you look in the mirror you're probably going to be cold.

Third, know what you're trying to do in these clothes. You can be too hot shoveling snow in jeans and a t-shirt when it's 20 degrees. So if you'r reading clothing reviews and everyone's talking about taking it skiing, when you (like us) will be spending most of your outdoors times waiting at a bus stop, know that you're going to want something warmer.

Now for some specific suggestions. Last year as we entered winter we wondered where all our money was going, and then realized we were spending it all on winter clothes. I don't regret a dollar spent because truly, in Boston, you're going to be wearing those winter clothes for at least four months (and if you're like me, more like 5-6 months). So, if you calculate out the "cost per wear" spending the extra money on good clothing that lasts is totally worth it. When it's truly cold you will appreciate every single piece of clothing you are wearing (and desperately miss anything you forgot to wear). So on a daily basis I'm wearing $600 worth of clothing (and none of it designer!), which is a little depressing to think about. But each of these items has lifetime guarantees so they won't wear out, or will get replaced if they do. So if we're here four years and only keep them that long, that's $150 a year = ~$30/winter month = ~$1 per day to be totally warm head to toe--totally worth it, at least in my book.

This hat (The Outdoor Research Women's Frostline Hat) is the best thing I've ever bought. Do I look ridiculous wearing it? Yes. Does my head ever get cold? Not even once. Not even when the wind chill was -10F. (I actually, very sadly, lost that hat a couple weeks ago and I've reordered its upgraded cousin, which has better coverage and waterproofing. We'll see how it holds up.) In addition to full ear coverage it also has a zip-out face mask that covers your nose and mouth.

A good scarf is essential. You'll want it to plug the "cracks" between your coat and your neck, and to pull up over your nose and mouth when it's very cold. My favorite scarves that I have are the Lands End Cashtouch Scarves. They are soft and warm, but not terribly bulky. The "quick dry" component is helpful because snow will saturate it--or if it's over your nose and mouth, the condensation from your mouth will saturate it (and if it's really cold, the whole scarf will freeze, I can tell you by experience!)

Now for the inner layers going under the coat. I am the very warmest when I have on long underwear (tops and bottoms) along with a polarfleece pullover that zips up around the neck (something like this although mine's a cheap Old Navy one I bought years ago). I wear the Lands End Thermaskin long underwear, which are super soft and thin and fit well under clothes. Together those two layers wick so well that if I'm warm enough a layer of sweat accumulates between the polarfleece and my coat, so my skin is warm and dry.

I wear a parka length down coat from Eddie Bauer. Things I love about my coat: the fur lining around the hood keeps the wind off your face and the snow out of your eyes. The pockets are sherpa-lined, making them super warm (although don't put your hands in your pockets when it's icy because better to break an arm when you fall than to break your skull!). The zipper pulls are big enough to grip if you're wearing gloves. There's a cuff inside the sleeves to keep snow from getting in there. Things I wish were different about my coat: I wish there was a cinch cord at the bottom. Sometimes I also wish it were calf-length instead of parka-length, but overall it's warm enough.

I am not entirely happy with my gloves but I am beginning to think gloves can only be so warm. I have the warmest L.L. Bean gloves they sell. They're probably the warmest gloves I have but my fingers still get cold, and the smallest size they sell is still too big. I have windproof fleece gloves and leather/cashmere gloves from Land's End that fit my hands perfectly but aren't as warm. My newest idea is something like sherpa-lined mittens, but I haven't picked any out yet.

Finally, footwear. I chose combo rain/snow boots from L.L. Bean. They're tall enough to step in giant puddles or snowdrifts, and the snow insert is pretty warm. My mom saw Smartwool Ph.D. socks right before I graduated and moved to Boston and bought me a pair of them as a joke, but for real, these are the best socks ever. I know they're quite expensive, but if you just have a few pairs and do laundry frequently, they are totally worth it.

Our latest wardrobe addition, compliments of Patrick's parents, are Yaktrax. While not entirely necessary, these things are awesome because they let you walk on ice without slipping at all. Honestly I think I could run in them no problem...but don't worry, I won't :)

So, bring it on, New England winter! Or maybe not...at least not to the degree to shut down public transit! We did try driving our car in the snow this morning. There was only about 1/2" on the roads yet it still struggled to gain traction. So we'll be riding the trains and buses for the winter and considering buying snow tires for next year if we decide to be even more adventurous :)

Stay warm, dear friends :)

September

Slowly but surely catching up...

We celebrated a cold, quiet, and rainy Labor Day weekend. I bought Patrick a roaster oven/smoker that he used to try to make some pulled pork on Labor Day. It turned out pretty good for a first try, although it took longer than expected! We had invited our friends the Lewises over to share it, but it turned into a progressive dinner as we ate hotdogs, then found that the corn on the cob was undercooked, so put it back in the pot and ate it 20 minutes later, then enjoyed pork sliders an hour later, with cookies somewhere in there too...thankful that Mark and Kimberly are good enough friends to forgive us for an extremely extended dinner, haha.

Our friends Alex and Emily stayed with us on that Tuesdsay night. I only thought to snap a photo of us on the bus on the way out the next morning.

The following weekend my dear friend Andrew from college came to stay with us. It was so good to see Andrew. Usually we're separated by an entire continent--Andrew lives in Davis, CA--but we've always tried to keep in touch and make time for visits when we can.

Mostly, we ate all weekend. We visited Ogawa Coffee to try some fancy drinks.

We took a sunset cruise in the inner harbor.

We visited the library and enjoyed the maps exhibit on Shakespeare.

And we toured the Taza Chocolate factory.

The next weekend my parents visited. We went up to New Hampshire into the White Mountains for the day.

The next weekend both my parents and Patrick's parents were in town that Friday night. We enjoyed chicken bog, biscuits, and collard greens together for dinner. The next day my parents flew back home, we enjoyed lunch with Patrick's parents, and dropped them off for their cruise to Canada.

That night we were knocked out! Four busy weekends in a row (and three more to come...ooh, foreshadowing to the next blog post, haha). And just like that, September was over. What a busy month.

Meanwhile, the weather had changed. After Labor Day, it really was like a lightswitch--warm and pleasant in August, then chilly in September. The short, short summer was over. Growing up in South Carolina I knew that the "official" beginning of summer was Memorial Day and the end of summer was Labor Day--but that was pretty meaningless because it was in the 80s from April to November! Here, those days truly seem to mark the beginning and ending of warmth. But September was a nice month to enjoy running outside and riding my bike around.

Otherwise, nothing new to report for September. Four more days in October then I'll post this month's updates!

August

August 3 marked one year since we moved to Boston. It was surreal to board that plane with two suitcases a piece, our car and household packed into a truck somewhere to be seen in a couple months, and to know that we were more or less starting over entirely. We knew pretty much no one. We had no idea where we would live beyond temporary housing. I think I would have been more nervous if not for the exhaustion of waiting from October 2014 to August 2015 in anticipation of the move.

But here we were, a year later. On August 4 last year, our first full day in Boston, we had no one but a hotel receptionist to take our picture.

On August 4 this year, our dear friends Jordan and Katie met us at the river to take our picture.

Along the riverside as we walked, we also ran into our pastor, Colin, on his way home from work, and our friend Netanya walking back from the swimming pool. So at least we've made some friends in a year :)

The first weekend in August we went to Connecticut on a little overnight trip for our anniversary. We visited Mystic, CT and went to the Mystic Aquarium. But honestly I think the best thing that happened that trip was we found this Peruvian/Bolivian restaurant in Providence called Julianna's Restaurant. Listen, that's probably the best thing I've eaten since we moved here. We might drive to Providence just to eat it again sometime.

I'm sure we took some pictures but I can't find them right now.

The rest of  August was mostly eaten up by Patrick's participation in the Red Bull Flugtag. I took some pictures but of course these are better :)

Other mid-August highlights included finding a quilting shop in Cambridge, meeting Al and Amanda's baby girl for the first time, working on my cooking technique for frying okra, as our okra plant finally started yielding. My okra cooking skill up until this point has been hit-or-miss, but my friend Lauren wants me to make her some sometime, so I wanted to get good at it before making it for company.

The last week of August we went to the Esplanade with some friends from church to listen to the Longwood Symphony Orchestra.

That was so nice that we decided to head out to Tanglewood the following weekend  with some friends to enjoy a rehearsal of Beethoven's 9th. (I probably took pictures then too but can't find them either.) But what was nicest about that trip was the night before. We stayed at a hotel a couple towns over. When we got out of the car...it was quiet. It was dark. You could see stars and hear crickets chirping. I could just feel my heart rate dropping from its usual frenzy into a state of relaxation. We sat outside in the pitch black just enjoying the quiet and dark, and we slept so hard that night. 

Living close to a city means never quiet, never dark, and never alone. I suppose if you've always lived in a city you don't know anything different. But I still wake up with traffic noise, I miss hearing crickets and seeing stars, and sometimes I wish I could sit on my front porch for a couple hours without seeing another soul.

Another year of marriage and a full year of work made both of us reflect on the way life is going. I think overall, we came to the conclusion that things are okay. Our jobs are hard. But work is always hard, in one dimension or another. 

We both miss the friendships that we built over months and years, the kind of friends you can pick up the phone and talk to, and they're aware of years of context about you, your family, and your worldview. But each of those friendships had a day one many years ago, and I have confidence that we're building those kinds of friendships now. (Plus, our decades-long friends are only a phone call away :) )

Boston isn't home. But if even if we returned to Clemson, or to Rock Hill, or to Fort Mill, or to Blythewood, it wouldn't be the home we remember, in a lot of ways. Even so, our minds haven't yet changed--we'd like to make it back closer to home within the next four years or so. This has been a great adventure but we'd really love to be within driving distance to our families. But we've signed a lease until next July, so in all likelihood we'll be here for at least another year, and we're okay with that.

We miss you all. Until next time!

July

This blog is destined to be perpetually behind by a couple months. (Which is no surprise, since most of the time, I feel behind by a couple months. October? Already? Really? What happened to summer?)

July started off with a trip to South Carolina. We had wanted to spend some time with our families and then found out that our dear friend Matt Pepper was getting married and that it was sure to be the reunion of the century, with the revolving-door that was our small group for the three years we spent in Clemson before we got married. So we took the whole week off and flew south.

I neglected to take a single picture this week...so you'll just have to imagine with me.

We got to spend the 4th of July evening with my Dad's sisters and my cousins on that side. We caught nothing on fire, although a stray firework did hit a random pedestrian walking down the street by pure chance. (No damage, but poor guy.)

Briana was home, so on the 4th we visited the Carolina Raptor Center, which was pretty cool.

We went to see Patrick's family for a couple days too. We went to the zoo with Patrick's parents. We ate much more barbeque than we should have at The Palmetto Pig.

Then we went to Clemson. It was amazing to see so many of our dear friends at the same place and the same time. Matt led a young adult small group for at least the six years I was in Clemson, and probably before that, so it's really hard to overestimate the impact he's had on so many of us, and the depth of love all of us have for each other after so many years of shared meals, laughter, tears, prayer, and growth. As we sat at the rehearsal dinner together, the best words I can think of to describe it was just observing, celebrating, and enjoying the work of God in each other. Of course, the celebration was centered around Matt and Teresa, but I remember looking around the room and just thinking of how much I loved the people there and how I could just see how we are all growing and changing, but only learning to love one another more and more despite distance and separation. Praise God for the beautiful community he has knit together in our hearts.

We got on the plane to SC with many tears, missing our dear friends and families already, and sad to leave the quiet of rural life and return to our home on a busy street in Watertown. It's not until we get out of the city that we realize how much the constant noise and busyness wears us down.

A couple weeks later, my sister Briana came to stay for a week. We had so much fun. She explored museums during the day and in the evening we ate at our favorite places--Ariana, Otto Pizza, Toscanini's, Cuchi Cuchi for her birthday celebration, Legal Sea Foods. We went to the Revere Beach Sand Sculpture competition. About when we were done, it started to drizzle. We made it to the parking deck just in time--a terrible hailstorm came! What a sad end to such cool art.

We missed our sister Victoria. We had hoped she'd be able to make it too but no luck. Hopefully next time.

Otherwise we spent the month enjoying the warmth and waiting for our plants to grow :)

May & June

I am happy to report that, despite my doubts, it did, in fact get warm. It was probably about May 15 before it felt like winter was over, but now we are enjoying a glorious summer.

I feel like the New England summer is like the Clemson fall--so much packed in week after week because it's the nicest time of year. We suffer through six months of slow, cold winter and then everything bursts forth into life for four short months of warmth (and two chilly months of autumn). So we spend every minute possible soaking up the sun, trying to save it up for those snowy, dark days when we think the sun will never shed its warmth on us again. So we've stayed outside and busy!

May
- On May 1, we officially joined Evangelical Baptist Church. We are so thankful for the friends we've made there.

- On May 13, I turned 29. We celebrated by taking a weekend vacation to New Hampshire and Vermont. We stayed in White River Junction, NH. We hiked in Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller National Park and in Queechee Gorge. It was so nice to get out of the city for a while and enjoy some peace and quiet out in nature. The Saturday was a beautiful day, perfect for hiking and enjoying being outside. We hiked probably about nine miles. We were glad we pushed it to get in both hikes, though, because Sunday it was freezing cold and pouring rain.

- We bought bikes! I had been wanting a bike for a long time so that I could run errands and ride to work sometime. Patrick and I rode our bikes to work for the first time on May 11 to participate in Bay State Bike Week. It was 46 degrees out with 13mph wind. I couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got to work. Since then I've been biking to work a few times a week. It's nice because then my commute time doubles as my work time, so I can get some extra sleep :)

- Patrick's parents came to visit the following weekend. We rode the Minuteman bike trail with them and otherwise just enjoyed spending time with them. Pam cooked us a delicious dinner from produce she got at the Haymarket on the Friday night. Thursday we went out to a Moldovan restaurant down the street, and Saturday we went to Legal Sea Foods for supper. They had to fly out early Saturday morning.

- We had a busy Memorial Day weekend! Our friends Mark and Kimberly had some family come in town who stayed with us. We got to meet them (Mark's dad, stepmom, and siblings) and celebrated little Timothy's fourth birthday. On Sunday and Monday we had a church retreat in Alton Bay, NH. It was such a nice time getting to know folks better and enjoying being outside.
We stayed in a cabin with our friends Nick and Michelle and their two girls, and our friend Anna and her parents. We stayed up until 1AM telling stories and laughing together. They called for rain all day Monday but sure enough it cleared out around 10AM and we enjoyed volleyball and kayaking together.

- We said our first goodbyes to friends we'd made here. Our dear friends Kathryn and Khang moved to Seattle for their residency. What a blessing our brothers and sisters at Park Street Church are.

June
- We planted a tiny garden in the tiny bit of mulch we have in our front yard. We've planted two tomato plants, a few okra plants, snap peas, snow peas, pole beans, lettuce, and herbs. So far we've harvested two tomatoes and a handful of snap peas. The okra is looking good and the pole beans are thriving!

 - We celebrated three graduating seniors with our church family on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a picnic and volleyball. We enjoyed smores around the church fire pit after a Wednesday night prayer service.

- We visited New York City for a week. Part of Patrick's team is in that office so his manager sent him there to work for a week. I asked my manager if I could tag along and he agreed, so all we had to pay for was my train ticket!

This was our first big train trip. It took about four hours to get from Boston to New York. It was a nice, scenic ride, and train travel is so much more comfortable than air travel.

This was our view from the 14th floor patio in the office.

Here are some pictures from inside the NYC office:

On weeknights we mostly just wandered around. We were staying in this super trendy hotel with a floor to ceiling window into the shower. Good thing we're married!

NYC is way too cool for us. But I did enjoy going for a run on the High Line, and along the Hudson River. We also had the unexpected treat of being able to meet up with our friends Collins and Ashley, who were also vacationing there! (I guess we didn't take a picture though because I can't find it.)

One night we went on a late night quest for french fries. These were pretty great.

We stayed the night on Saturday so that we could have a day to explore the city. We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, to the 9/11 Memorial, and to Central Park.

Well, July's not *quite* over yet so I'll take this as my cue to stop. Thanks for reading !