Hey! Who Turned on the Cold?!

This past week, it's been about 70 degrees F. every day. That's SEVENTY... Seven-Zero, my friends. And just in case you are unsure, yes, it is mid-January. This is one of the many things I love about calling North Carolina home. Although it does get chilly here from time to time, the weather is generally somewhere between 60 and 105. And for me... warm weather GOOOOOOD! In fact, it's almost like living in Florida, except with more cold days, less rain, no DisneyWorld, and hardly any tourists (unless you live in the mountains... and by odd coincidence, most of those tourists are Floridians).

It took me a couple of days to catch on to this warm streak. On Wednesday, I felt absolutely rock stupid as I donned my jacket and scarf before heading out of the restaurant where I met up with my former boss. As we exited the building, I realized I must have looked like an idiot... all bundled up against the sunshine and mildness of the outdoors.

Last night (Friday), I worked an evening shift, which means I got off work at 9pm. Around 8pm, one of the staff came to me to inform me that there was a tornado watch currently in our area. Groovy, I thought. Nothing like the prospect of being stuck at work overnight due to downed power lines and general mayhem. (Don't laugh. Just last year, several staff members at another branch had to do just that during a sudden ice storm.)

One would think that at my age and with my supposed high intelligence, I would have put two and two together and realized this meant a cold front was moving in. But did I? Well, what do YOU think?

So today, as we headed out to take my mother-in-law to a meeting she was attending in Cary(she's staying with us for the weekend), I paid absolutely no attention to the real temperature, and decided it was still 70 degrees outside. After we dropped her off, we headed to BJs Warehouse for our bimonthly stock up on all things bulk. Athena did well, but by the end of it, it was clear that she wanted to go home, and we were all tired from being up most of the night with her for no apparent reason. (She woke around 2:15, and stayed up until about 4:30, with Chris and I switching off to comfort her).

So home we went. We had lunch, and we all (all three of us) settled down for a nap. At 2:00, we rose feeling just as tired as before (except Athena, who seemed quite chipper) and I decided that Athena should really have a chance to play outside while the weather is still nice... before it turns cold. If it's okay with you, I'd like to just write this little brain lapse off as "pregnancy brain" and leave it at that.

I also had to go to the grocery store, as I have invited my own mother and her best friend over for dinner tomorrow night so they can visit with my mother-in-law. I thought now that I invited them over, I should at least consider actually having food on hand for them. So I came up with the incredibly brilliant idea of going to the park for a bit before hitting the store so Athena could run herself ragged.

When I proposed this to Chris, he pointed out that there were hockey and football games on today. This, of course, means nothing to me. There are hockey and football games on all the time. And we do have a DVR. So whatever. I phoned Kathryn to see if Aiden wanted to come out to play as well. She also agreed that letting the two buddies run themselves silly was a good thing, and she agreed to meet us at 3:30 at the park.

I realized that if I hoped to get to the store, it had to be before I went to the park, so I headed out and arranged that I would meet Chris, Athena, Aiden and Kathryn at the park as soon as I was done. I didn't need to buy too many refrigerated items, and we weren't going to be at the park more than a half hour or so. I almost walked out of the house without my jacket at all. Remember, it's a beautiful warm day outside in my happy world. However, I knew that I'd be outside at the park, and I thought perhaps it would be good to have the jacket just in case.

Needless to say, I arrived at the park and FINALLY noticed that it is actually about 32 degrees F. and coincidentally, at the same moment, I noticed that my lighter jacket was really not going to cut it. Sure enough, both Kathryn and Chris were in heavy coats, and they were also smart enough to bundle up the kids, complete with hats. So I stood out there freezing, while they laughed at my silly plan to take the kids to the park in the cold (we were the only ones there other than some college boys who were playing touch football -- in shorts. So let the record show I'm not the dumbest person on Earth.) and they laughed at my light jacket.

The good news is, the refrigerated goods I did end up buying were at no risk for going bad in the back of the car. The other good news is that Athena had a great time at the park. The bad news is, Athena was so upset about leaving the park, I had to spend the next hour coddling her and trying to get her to stop crying. Along with the cold front, the temper tantrums have also moved in. Expect many posts in the near future describing the drama that seems to surround our little angel lately.