and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Yesterday, it snowed. Luckily. Now the sidewalks are covered in a nice sprinkling of fluffy which warms me leetle heart, since the other option is bare wet pavement with flyers, receipts, paper plates, and other garbage littering the curb. The problem with winter - or winter in the M-to-the-On-Treal at least - is that garbage is not swept away in a flurry every other morning at 8am sharp unlike the beautiful summertime.

Summertime, if you're not a section parker and therefore can avoid the irritating car-move 4 times a week, is grand and clean and fun and happy. No (or very little) garbage floating around on the breeze, and that makes for a clean and snazzy city in which to attract business, tourists, festivals, and the like. Good, right?

Winter, however, is either snow and ice with blisteringly cold wind (which I quite frankly like, it keeps the riff-raff to a min and it makes one feel alive) or, as stated above, it's a mess of slush and grime and dirty entryways and it always involves lots and lots and lots of taking-on-and-taking-off-of-shoes-at-the-door-don't-track-mud-in-thank-you-very-much. Normally not so much a problem but in the low-income bracket of student housing comes very little foyer space, no bench on which to sit and remove boots, no amenities as those viewed on such monstrosities as The O.C. or Batman.. which is to say - no pool house, no batcave, and absolutely no Catwomen.

During wintertime the women bundle up to a point that they are hardly recognizable as humans - in fact, the common puffy down jackets that come in white can lead to snowdrift misinterpretations. Otherwise it's trendy legwarmers and furred hoods and big plumpy attire that does nothing to turn one's head, causing - *sigh* - much drying out and cracking of one's rubberneck. April *always* contains at least one maintenance appointment: e.g. Sit in St. Louis park on the first fresh day of spring when 95% of the city's population, previously holed up in hibernation, hit the streets and cafes and bodegas and restuarants and bistros and bars and, halleluah, let freedom RING. This is the refresher course one needed and sure enough before one knows it things are back in full swing.

Unfortunately, this situation is but a distant glimmer in Mother Nature's eye at the mom' and so we must sit tight for a few more months, struggling through the snow with wet feet, runny noses, and layers of clothing piled upon our beasts of burden backs. In the meantime we should do our best to enjoy what little happiness this season gives us in the form of hot toddies, eggnog, christmas lights forgotten, and snow: secret: we actually like the snow.

tony called dave navarro the king of L.A. bloggers, and is excited to have received a response. jaime gets back to normal, whatever normal is. Sounds like Nika's got the same cold I have. Bummer.