This last week, the sky in New York City looks like someone has colored it in with a No.2 pencil. The clouds are knitted together so tightly that the sun and the blue skies of Fall have become distant memories. It is a struggle. No matter what time you wake up in the morning it feels like 6am or 6pm. Though I try motivating myself to put on a bright lipstick and a cute outfit, all I really want to do is layer some grey over some black and blend into that hanging coal colored sky.
Suffice to say, a grey mood has followed those grey clouds. We are in the nadir of winter. That sleepy, suffocating part when it seems there is no end in sight. The camel coats and apple cider days are long gone and the skirt and sandals days seem more like a silly dream than an inevitable future. What to do? Well, I suppose cozy dinners with friends are in order. Tucked up inside warm apartments with wine glasses cradled in our hands and roast chicken on our plates. And movies, Michael and I saw Les Mis for our date night last week. Exercise would probably be a wise choice though it seems unfavorable. I must don my leggings (and the second pair I have to wear over them because it’s so cold out) and plant my feet on a yoga mat with my fellow sweaty New Yorkers. Perhaps a pedicure? I’ve lost all hope with my feet since they are never on display any more. There’s nothing worse than having chipped toe nails in a yoga class and having to stare at them every time you end your sun salutation. Warm cups of tea and some long hours in a cozy chair with a good book – I just started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Cleaning. Oh yes, upon return from our European adventures I realized how desperately our lovely apartment needs a good scrub. Baking – I started yesterday with some easy Martha Stewart breakfast muffins. Pancake month begins at Clinton St Bakery in Feb so I suppose a good long pancake eating adventure will be in order. And work, now is a wonderful time to get to work, to get things done, to be a good little worker bee.
There’s so much to do. This grey month is so obviously a time for moments of great productivity and peace. And yet, I just want to curl up in my bed and lay. I want to look out my window as the rain taps at my sill and day dream of the sticky heat of July. I want to wake up in the morning and throw on a dress and be done with the process of dressing. I want to walk, walk, walk New York in the way you only do in the summer months. With a sweating cup of iced coffee or a MexiCola in hand, searching for the next ice cream or air conditioned store to cool down in. I was a summer baby and I have grown into a summer woman. Don’t get me wrong, I love the apples in fall and the pre-Christmas glitter and ribbons. But the real winter? It is not my time. I feel more like a bear than a bee. A bear, wandering around confused by why she is expected to work when the sun has stopped doing it’s job and it is clearly hibernating time.
Well, at least I don’t have the mean reds…though perhaps a trip to Tiffany’s would cheer me up.
How do you escape the Winter Greys?
A Violet Grows in Brooklyn 