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January 24, 2006 - Tuesday, 1:23 a.m.

Today was busy. One of those days when I barely left my desk. I didn't eat lunch or go get anything to eat. I got done what I needed to get done.

I'll go to lunch tomorrow with a friend from work, so at least I'll get away for a bit. I am going to be busy this week. Don't even want to contemplate it.

It's been cold for a number of days. There is still snow on the ground and ice everywhere from the storm last week. The evening it snowed I remember looking out the window, and there was that pink tinge to everything that you get from the lights in the dark reflecting from the snow. It just makes a person want to go out and sit out in it.

It really made me think about growning up in Minnesota. We lived in Minnesota from the time I was 5 years old until I was 15. The first snow flew about mid to late November, and once the snow was on the ground it didn't disappear until early April.

When I was a little girl, every girl tended to wear dresses to school. We all had lockers from about 2 grade up, to house all that snow gear we wore, including snow pants. We lived about 5 blocks from the elementary school I went to, and there was no bus, so I walked. One of the first years we lived in the house in Anoka, there was a big snow storm that left a couple feet of snow (nearly 3 feet). My mother said that my dad shoveled the sidewalk from out front door out to the main sidewalk, and then the sidewalk in front of the house. She said it left a trench in the deep snow, and when I walk out to go to school, she said when I turned onto the main side walk, she couldn't see me anymore due to the snow.

I didn't weigh much as a kid and in Minnesota, there tends to develop a hard layers of snow on top from what little melting the sun created. I can remember that I was light enough to walk on top of the snow, which was always pretty hard around the places that were shoveled. However, as you walked out into the middle of a snow field, the crust of snow would get thinner and thinner until every now and then I'd break through and drop into about waist deep snow. I loved walking on top of the snow. It felt like magic.

It's funny how kids amuse themselves. :o) I remember that I had a square lunch box made of metal. It was white with pink flowers as I recall. I can remember dragging that lunch box along the snow as I walked to school. It left a groove in the snow, that reminded me of a road. I was always trying to create a 'road' all the way to school. Every couple of days it would have completely disappeared due to blowing snow, and I'd make it over and over again. It was a miniature road, and my mind would wander off and think about little people using my road to get around. The miniature world was always fun to ponder on.

I can remember how cold it was, walking to school. If I ran at all, whether to or from school, or too and from the skating rink at the park, I remember that it was really important NOT to completely breathe in and out, as the cold air hurt your lungs. At some point I figured out if I could keep my breathing shallow it didn't hurt. I remember that as I ran I wonder recite the months from January to December over and over again. The first three months the inhale, the second three months the exhale. It worked wonderfully. :o)

Snow like that always brings back a flood of memories of growing up for me.

I've finally warmed up tonight and am starting to get drowsy.

Sweet dreams... M.