It is COLD in Colorado right now! I kind of forgot what Colorado winters are like after all those Virginia winters. Also, before college, I was homeschooled for seven years, which meant I was free to pretty much spend the entire winter inside with a book or my computer. So, I was like, "Hey, winter's not so bad!" Sure, it's not, if you spend the whole thing indoors!

But now . . . I have a job. And a car. And winter? Winter makes everything more complicated. Winter driving? God, winter driving sucks. It's not just having to scrape ice off my windshield BOTH before AND after work, or waiting for the rear defrost to kick in. It's also taking detours because that road I usually take is icy, and my little Corolla can barely handle the hill when it's dry, so I'd better find another way around.

It snowed a bunch yesterday. It's still on the ground everywhere--cold as it is, I don't see it melting any time soon. The roads are still icy. So you know what, mizujada, and all you other snow lovers from states with mild winters? You can suck it. Personally, I don't like feeling like I'm living inside somebody's freezer. I don't like having to watch my footing everywhere I step so I don't break my neck. I don't like having to knock snow off of my shoes every time I step in a door or get into my car. And I really don't like how hard it is to drive with it all piled up along the roads and icing up parking lots and scraping the undercarriage of my car.

It is pretty, though. I will grant that. A winter day with snow on the ground is much less depressing to look at than a winter day with no snow on the ground. At least, until you realize you have to go out in it.

And I don't even live in a cold part of the state! For Colorado, my county has very mild winters! That's one of the reasons I like it here.

I mean, I'm a knitter--I like having winter, because without it, I couldn't wear almost anything I knit. I get a sincere satisfaction from pulling on something I made and knowing I can count on it to keep me warm. I even like a nice brisk cold once in a while. I'm not tired of winter yet by any means. (But, by the end of January, you can be damn sure I will be. It's not that I mind the cold so much, but as I've indicated, winter is just a HASSLE.)

In less ranty news, I just got my work schedule, and discovered I don't have to work on Christmas! I am so excited! I have to work on Christmas Eve, but it's a short shift. I'm a little annoyed at Walmart, because I'm part-time, but they keep scheduling for a bunch of 4.5 hour shifts, which means I still only get two days off a week (and one of those days is the day I work my other job), and half the time even those aren't consecutive. But, right now, I'm just excited about getting to spend Christmas at home with my family.

Sorry for the lack of real posts here, guys. I think that what happened was that I wrote SO MUCH in the months and weeks before graduation that I can't find the energy to really do a lot more writing. Hopefully that will be better soon. I kind of miss writing, even though I'm burnt out on it.

On the other hand, I've been doing a little more roleplaying lately, which is a good, low-energy creative outlet. Speaking of which, hey, fishlanterns, now that school's out for the summer, would you have any interest in picking up some more RP? Let me know.

I'm happy to be back in Colorado. It's surprisingly green here right now--apparently it was a rainy spring while I was gone. But the weather is just starting to warm up, and I'm sure things will get dryer soon. I finally have carved out some space of my own in my mom and stepdad's house. The other day, I finally got all my books out onto shelves, which was a wonderful feeling. I haven't had all my books out and available since high school. So, that's good.

I'm stuck on dialup at home, which is another reason for the lack of posts--I don't get online until the end of the day, and by then I'm too tired to do much but slog through my webcomics and blogs in Google Reader. Unfortunately, my mom's house is in this weird little low-income neighborhood, which means that the only broadband available is satellite. The phone lines aren't good enough for DSL, and the cables aren't digital, and while there is wireless broadband available in our area, this neighborhood is tucked away at the base of a mesa that conveniently blocks access to that. (As well as cell phone reception. It's not a great location, although its proximity to the river makes it pleasantly more humid than the surrounding area, and a few degrees cooler.)

Once I get a job, maybe I'll decide it's worth it to shell out the $60 a month for satellite internet, but since this situation is fairly temporary, I'm not convinced it would be worth the startup fees. So, for the time being, I can't watch videos or listen to streaming audio at home, which is frustrating. I'm spending a lot of time in the library, as you can imagine.

A few final pieces of housekeeping: First, now that school is over for good, I'm easing back into the whole instant messaging thing. I've abandoned AIM, but I'm on Google Talk most nights as museofastronomy. (I figure most of you probably at least have Gmail accounts.)

Second, amberdulen, I finally found those printouts I had from RWOnline. I'm happy to send them your way, if you want them--just e-mail me your address. (I should've saved it when you sent me those delicious cookies, but I didn't have the forethought.)

Third, I'm going to turn off the twitter dump to this journal. It's got to be annoying some of you, and it's just plain depressing that the last several weeks of posts are nothing but Twitter. Besides, my Twitter account (middlemuse) has an RSS feed, so even if you're not on Twitter, it shouldn't be that hard to keep up, if you desire.

When people ask what part of Colorado I'm from, I always say, "Well, I'm from the western half of the state, and there's really nothing there, except for one city which you've probably never heard of, and I don't even live in that city." I'm not sure people really get what I'm saying when I say I'm from the middle of nowhere, or when I complain about how everything is too close together in the East.

Well, I found a nice illustration of my point. Here is a map of Colorado population density. Numbers don't do much for me, but I can make sense of colors on a map. You can see a couple of big red-orange blobs around Denver and Colorado Springs on the Eastern Slope. But if you look west of that, you'll see a couple very isolated and very small dots of orange, and only one larger blob that ALMOST makes it to red in a couple spots. I don't even live in that blob. The town I live in has barely made it to yellow.

Notice also the large areas--on both sides of the state--where the population is less than one person per square mile.

Contrast this population density map of Virginia (hardly the country's most densely poplulated state). Look at the two maps side by side and maybe you can see why this place makes me feel claustrophobic. There's just too much yellow!*

ETA: Also, since I suspect miketanka will probably want to weigh in, given that we're both strangers in Virginia (and, hey, why not have a sampling of a third geographic area--I go on too much about the East), here's the map for Iowa. Still too much yellow for my tastes. Also, the counties are freakishly square. Word.



*I understand that as arguments go, "There's too much yellow!" is not highly effective, but I don't really care.