Something Cold This Way Comes

I realized that I have always hated the heat of Texas. I was checking the weather to see if we were going to break 95 this week and telling Monica that I didn't think we would break 95 too often anymore. She laughed and told me that every year she can remember me obsessing about the weather report during the fall for any hint of cool weather.

When she mentioned that I started to remember how much I looked forward to the first cold front. From the end of August I would watch the news everyday with my parents in hopes of getting a hint of winter coming. I would even get out my jacket and put it on just to sort of imagine it being cold, a task that is quite difficult with a jacket on.

I havn't done it recently because I've spent the last few summers up North. It would seem, however, that I am back in action. It's a nice throwback to my childhood. Not only that, my mom and I would always be excited about making hot chocolate when it got cold enough. Usually when we got news of the first cold front I would go with her to HEB to some of that instant stuff, then we'd open up the windows and drink hot chocolate.

To be perfectly frank those are some of my fondest memories of childhood. When I was Seattle the first time I had this week alone after Alice flew off and before I had started work and met people when it was cold enough to do just that, and my first trip to a grocery store in Redmond was to get hot chocolate.

I guess it's a tradition gone by the wayside now since I'll likely spend the next few years looking forward to the ever short summer.

Oh, I visited Monica. Rockin'. She taught me, with no dearth of kitchen chemistry, her recipe for sweet and sour chicken. Good stuff.