January 14, 2005
Abby and Corrie
Ah, what a glorious start of the year we've had! My friend Corrie came to visit from Oklahoma City, and we had a MARVELOUS time together. We shopped, ate M&M's, went to a MN orchestra concert, stayed up too late for anyone who hadn't lost their minds...
My favorite memory was this: We went on a walk on the morning of January 4th, 2005. It was cold, NO, it was frigid. A mass of arctic chill had silenced the song birds so the only sound was the crunch of our boots on the snowy sidewalk. The mercury read somewhere around 3 degrees, and with the wind it felt more like -20. We were dressed warmly, layer upon layer until our normally slender bodies looked more like the pillsbury dough boy. As soon as we stepped outside we experienced a new sensation. It's like instant freeze - your nose becomes solid in an instant. But the shivery feeling that overcame us was soon gone, and we felt invigorated. It was good to be alive! Stamping our boots, we hurried on, determined to make it at least one mile before turning back. When we reached the crest of the hill, an icy wind slammed us in the face and tears sprang to our eyes. We bent our heads down and looked at each other, smiling. But then we realized that our smiles were stiff, and that we couldn't feel our faces! It hadn't been quite a mile, but we turned back; not wanting to become a statistic on the nightly news. When we arrived back at the house, we thawed out over glasses of hot chocolate. What a walk. What a winter! What a fun time.