InnerTeub

It’s blizzarding outside my window, and in true Minnesotan fashion, I’m wondering if a) the Crossfit gym down the street [or rather, about a suburban mile away] will still be holding class, and b) if I can’t drive there, if it would be reasonable to walk.

That’s a nice combination of Minnesotan “Weather? What weather?” and 12 years of city living “Eh, I can just walk!” all in one.

The first day I was in Minnesota, I woke up early to a jazzed up puppy who had just spent 20 hours in a car. Normally I’d look at a temperature reading that said “1 degree” (ONE. SINGULAR.) and say “eff you dog, there’s the backyard”, but I was feeling guilty about the cross-country confinement, and proud of him for taking it so well (he didn’t whine the whole time! He basically slept for the entire trip, except for one awesome moment when he sat up while Poison’s “Something To Believe In” was blasting away and began his own little puppy version of head banging/air banding. Love that dog.)

ANYWAY, the point: This dog needed and deserved a good romp. I am not immune to puppy eyes, and so I found myself  bundled up with appx 5433 layers, and out we went for a nice little 2 mile job in 1 degree weather.

ONE. SINGULAR.

My face was so cold when we got back I had to wait to shower so the hot water wouldn’t sting. But you know what? Otherwise, it wasn’t so horrible. And the next day, when the temperature read “22 degrees,” I remarked with exactly no irony: “Wow – it’s warm out!” And later, when at the grocery store (first rule in the Yuppy Handbook w/r/t settling in and feeling comfortable in a new place: “Find the Whole Foods”), provisioning for an incoming blizzard, I saw a Jamba Juice and decided that, yes, a frozen fruit smoothie would be the perfect thing for lunch.

If drinking a frozen drink in 20 degree weather while stocking up for a blizzard isn’t me coming back to my Minnesota roots, well, I just don’t know what is.