It's a snowy day...

Very early this morning, before the sun was up, I woke up to a big CRASH sound. Alarmed, I sat straight up in bed and then froze, certain that someone had broken into the apartment and was waiting for me to get out of bed so they could kill me. I have a vivid imagination. It's times like this when I wish I lived with a roommate- preferably a big strong male one- who could get up and go chase the morning monster away. Needless to say, I do not have a big strong man living with me so instead I did what any person would do...I sat there in bed refusing to move for an hour until the silence of the house finally convinced me that no one had, in fact, broken in. Turns out, Tigger had knocked a bucket of kitchen utensils over. Thanks, cat.

So needless to say, I'm a little tired. And it's freezing outside, so I can't stop thinking about my warm comfy bed. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like in my neck of the woods today.
I do bitch about the cold a lot, but I still love the way everything looks with snow blanketing it.
And at least I can walk to work and class, so I didn't have to drive in it.
This is a photo I took a few days ago actually, but I thought it was cool. From far away, it looked like the ducks were standing and walking on the water (like Jesus ducks!). Turns out, the ice was actually just covered up by a thin layer of water, and that's what they were walking on. So, no divine ducks, but still pretty cute!

When the weather outside is frightful...

It seems everybody is just about sick of winter already. Yesterday Joanna over at Smitten brought up her winter crankiness, and Cavewoman over at Blogdorf Goodman wrote a post on Ohio Winter Blues that I can SO relate to. It is freezing, gray, and wet outside all.freaking.day. There is nothing charming about downtown Columbus in the winter and whoever came up with the term "wintry mix" needs to be shot.

But in the name of not letting the weather dictate my mood, here are a few of the things I do to pick myself up when it's crappy outside.

Heater Blankets- seriously, get one. Don't leave it on all the time, you don't want to burn your place down. But these things are super for when it's frigid outside and you don't want to crank the heat up too much because, you know, gas prices suck.

Cinnamon pancakes- I love cinnamon. I love pancakes. Put them together and it's like heaven. Just dump a boatload of sugar into some pancake batter and make as usual. Or, you know, sprinkle it on if you're not a cinnamon loving freak like me. Add chopped apples if that floats your boat.

Hot chocolate- is a cold weather classic. I top mine off with, you guessed it, cinnamon.

Colorful clothes- I try to wear as little solid black in winter as possible. Because it makes me look like death.

Gigantic fuzzy socks- look ridiculous, but are insanely comfortable when it's way too cold outside (and inside). Put some lotion on under the socks to combat the mid-winter flakie foot syndrome.

Anything that smells like lemon- because lemon has been shown to help with mood, albeit temporarily. I especially love CO Bigelow Lemon Body Cream because it's made with real lemon oil (so it smells authentic) and no artificial fragrance.

Redecorating my desk area.