Spoiled Rotten

I don't know that I'll ever be able to move back to the Midwest.

One thing I'm extremely blessed with is the fact that the city I live in has almost perpetual sunny blue skies. I've visited enough polluted cities in China to be extremely grateful for this fact. Seriously, it's like Florida here, you know, except for the fact that it's at least sixty degrees colder. Winter may last for eight months, but at least it's a sunny winter. However, for the last week we've seen the sun for a total of no more than four hours. As a Midwestern gal this shouldn't bother me. I should be used to day after day, week after week, even month after month gray weather. That is winter in the Midwest. But apparently I've been spoiled. Each morning when I wake up to another gray day with yet more drizzling rain, my heart cries out, "Where's the sun?!?" Life seems so drab!

At least there are colorful umbrellas to lighten up the scene. Look out the window of a skyscraper in Chicago on a rainy day and you'll see an endless procession of black, navy, dark blue, and other drably and drearily colored umbrellas. Look out the window in China and it's like a parade of Easter eggs. Pastels dominate, with iridescent and shimmering purples and blues thrown in as well. The Chinese know how to brighten up a gray day.

The perpetual rain and lack of sunshine has led to quite chilly weather...both inside and out. Since the calendar seemingly indicates that the weather should be warm, our heat has been shut off. That means that as May rapidly approaches, I'm still living in fleece pajama pants. At the moment I'm huddled under a fleece blanket. Due to the lack of heat, it's actually the "coldest" season of the year right now. Sunshine come back!