And Now a Word on Ice.

I was born and raised in Ohio. This is not a proud fact, in fact it's one that I'd rather ignore in a desperate attempt to forget that part of my childhood and move on to better places, like for instance North Carolina. But...that doesn't change the fact that yes, I was still born in Ohio. This is a place where around September it starts getting noticeably colder but nothing is really wrong till about the third week of October when the snow starts coming down in a little flurries followed by massive flakes then a blizzard or two before the entire thing stops around March. I left Ohio when I was nine and we moved to North Carolina where they very rarely ever have snow except maybe once every four years and it normally isn't that bad.

Well today was bad. I don't live in NC anymore. Back in May I made the decision to move to DC and while the weather here hasn't been the paradise I was secretly hoping for, it hasn't been down right apocalyptic either. Until today. I left my apartment to go get my hair done at the salon down the street. I went and left my gloves thinking it wasn't a big deal and on the way down it was cold but tolerable, as I went, did what I had to do and left around five.

Oh. My. God.

Temperature had dropped and I realized later that the weather channel had issued a wind chill alert for the area. It had dropped to 18 but with the wind chill, that was reduced to 7 degrees. Suddenly I had to roll home for 30 minutes in 7 degree weather. Shit. The way home was completely and utterly brutal. I have never felt pain like that before, and I in no way want to experience it again. Getting cold is kinda weird in that it starts kind of refreshing when you leave a building the blast hits you, it's oddly cooling since the human body stays a constantly near 100 all the time. So going outside after being inside all day feels nice for about ten minutes or so in especially cold weather. But then from that point, you feel yourself starting to get numb, and that's okay because it doesn't feel bad just odd. At this point, this is when you should get indoors to avoid painful reprocussions, but I didn't have a choice as I had to roll a little over a mile back to the apartment and had nowhere to go. After the numbness starts to wear off, there's a throb and it starts pulsing underneath the skin and you can feel a burning sensation at the edges of your fingertips that starts to prick at something you can't reach. The fire continues to spread as pain starts radiating from your hands and you struggle to find somewhere to put them, to shield them from the cold, but there's nowhere in my position because I need them to navigate. By the time I got to my apartment, my hands were hurting so bad I wanted to cry but it was too painful. They had started turning dark purple and one fingernail was cracked and chipped off. I could barely turn the key in my apartment and it took all my willpower to keep from screaming when I tried to put my hands under the hot water in the bathtub. Note to self. Don't do that. It's better to warm them naturally in a warm room than shock treatment as it hurts worse. Even now, it's been over six hours in my warm apartment and I can still feel the pain deep within my fingertips from earlier this afternoon.

NOTE TO SELF. TAKE GLOVES WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES.