Thursday, January 24, 2008

About keeping warm

Okay, if you are a warm-blooded type, just skip it. People who are always warm, no matter what, just don't understand.
If a slight breeze in July makes you wonder what the wind-chill is, this post is for you.
Because I am almost always cold. Even with what should be a well-insulating fat layer, or two.
Actually, I don't think fat has much to do with hot or cold. I think it's skin. Because my skin seems extraordinarily sensitive to stuff -- stuff like cold.
So weather like we've been having (as I type, it's 9 degrees) is anathema to me. And since I've been this way since I was a little kid, I've developed several strategies to combat the cold.
My favorite is one I've cultivated as a grownup, but is so extreme, and expensive, I can't practice it as often as I wish. This strategy is, well, leaving. The cold behind. And me, in a new location. A warm location. Like Ft. Myers, Florida. I know. Cheating.
So, the real strategies, like, wear two pairs of socks. Very helpful, if a multiplier of laundry.
Or, duh, wear pants. Because even the glimpse of a woman in a skirt and hose makes me have to go to the ER with sympathy frostbite. I mean, what are they thinking!? Don't you know you're freezing me!
The only time I wear anything resembling pantyhose in winter? (Oh, wait, I mean: ever.) When I wear nice, soft microfiber tights under my pants! Put socks on too, and some nice ankle boots, and you can walk to your car after work in a great state of denial.
And, wear sweaters. With blouses/t's underneath. Or a jacket. Or, and a jacket. And maybe a cami. With a vest.
You know, what they always tell you on TV: layer.
And: have a selection of coats. Shop the mark down sales here in the next month or so and you can do it for cheap! I got a parka good for -30 degrees on sales at L.L. Bean last winter, then snagged a sharp leather jacket (not good for frigid cold, but goodness it looks sharp in other weathers) at JC Penney's for about $35,then, in a final red-dot-sale paroxysm of coat shopping, picked up a black wool dress coat, three-quarter length, at Peebles, for less than $50. Wearing the black wool number is like wearing a blanket out and about.
Wear your hair over your ears or get some of those behind-the-neck ear muffs. Or, heck, make a statement with some fuzzy hot-pink things. You're so cold, who cares?
Write now, I'm on the sofa, fuzzy afghan over me, warm laptop on my lap, two pairs of socks, cup of tea, heating pad.
My feet are still freezing. HOW MANY SOCKS MUST I WEAR?
How 'bout you? How are you keepin' warm?

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