in which I begin to dream of spring break

When I was in 4th grade, I was obsessed with the weather. I don't know if it was the timely release of the film Twister, or the fact that Austin experienced several severe thunderstorms that summer, or even a potential coverage of meteorology in my science class, but I was fixated on meteorology. I wanted to be a meteorologist. Terrified of lightning and tornadoes, I wanted to know all there was to know about them. Somewhere along the line I realized that one has to do math and science to be a weather girl, and that reading novels alone was not going to get me there, and I swapped my ambition to being a weather-woman for ambition to being an English teacher.

Yet I maintained a preoccupation with the weather, as anyone who has experienced a thunderstorm with me could tell you. I was probably the only person in Conway, Arkansas for four years who ever took tornado watches and warnings seriously. As you might imagine, my obsession has led me to a close acquaintance, if not an intimacy, with Weather.Com. I used to watch entire thunderstorms over 'live radar' for hours while distractedly writing essays in college. And since moving to Iowa, the '10 Day Forecast' has become both my enemy and my consolation in the wintertime.

For example, I can tell you that the high for the next 10 days is projected to be in the 40s! But, I can also tell you, that out of those 10 days, at least 3 of them have 60% or more chance of snow showers. Hurrah for warm weather (yeah--Texas gal moves to Iowa, and two years later, suddenly 43 degrees is WARM), but boo for even more slush and snow. It's mid-February. Shouldn't it be spring soon?

Well, no. Not here. Here, it is still wool-tights, wool-sweater, and it-is-much-too-cold-to-snap-outdoor-outfit-shots-but-here-is-one-anyway weather:




[beret: Urban Outfitters, sweater: Gap, blouse: vintage, skirt: Anthropologie, boots: LL Bean, locket: vintage, belt: Ruche, socks: Sock Dreams, tights: Sock Dreams]

But I recently saw a few of the photos that I have taken over spring break in Austin in the past. Let me share a couple:







As you can see, the amount of clothing is very little! Few (if any) layers! Sunshine! GREEN GRASS. I'll be spending spring break in Austin again this year. I leave on March 8th. That is in... 18 days. 2.5 weeks! In 2.5 weeks, then, is it safe to say that I will be in a place that exhibits SWIMSUIT WEATHER?!

It should be no wonder that I begin to dream of what I will do in these 2.5 weeks. I will wear dresses and skirts without needing to worry about the static that my wool tights create. Know why? I won't be wearing wool tights. I'll be able to hold hands with R in the open air, and not in his coat pocket! I'll be able to sit outside and read--possibly not even only for class!!--and watch the dogs go on walks. Because it will be warm enough for people to take their dogs on walks! Oh to be able to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall outside, rather than indoors! But perhaps it suits the dreary Victorian novel, to be read inside with a steaming mug of tea. In that case I'll definitely have to finish Bleak House before spring break.