What Cold Looks Like

 We are deep into our third winter in the Midwest.  

That little blue dip, in the middle of the weather map 

on the back page of the newspaper, is where we call home. 

 It is COLD right now.  

What does cold look like? 

This morning I took these photos 

while standing out on the frozen edge of Lake Michigan.

The view of land (and the Evanston Lighthouse)

The view of the lake ...
the Northwestern students on the left
 give you a little perspective on the sheer amount of ice
that builds on the beach.

Like leftover summer Slushies thrown out a car window,
 icy waves crash over an ice sculpture of treacherous cliffs..

I really wanted to get a picture to show you 

how dramatic the waves look 

pulling back and forth in an icy tide.

Each wave carries the sound of broken glass

 as moving ice accelerates toward the growing ice wall.

Taking this photo might go in the 

BAD IDEA category.

What does cold look like?  It looks like an extra twenty minutes getting out the door in the morning as we scramble to gather mittens, coats, and hats.  It looks like moisture in the air freezing and reflecting the sun in tiny prisms of floating light.  It looks like a very fidgety husband who can't go ride his bike 100 miles outside.  It looks like I'm wearing the same pair of Lulu leggings every day to stay warm which, as an FYI because I know you are wondering, is the best item of clothing I have ever bought (wear them to yoga or run, throw a dress over them with boots and - shabang!- you don't even have to take a shower.  You can even wear them under jeans on super chilly days, but I digress).

So, what has been up in these parts lately?  It certainly isn't blogging or even much reading for that matter.  I started a new job about two months ago at Evanston Hospital (where the Whooping Cough vaccine was invented because I knew you were wondering that too).  I'm working as a Patient Care Tech in hopes that (cross your fingers) this job will evolve into an RN job in the coming years.  So what is a Patient Care Tech anyway?
Should you need your blood sugar checked, your vitals taken, maybe an EKG, or to be hooked up to a telemetry (heart) machine, well,  then I'm your girl.  I can also change your diaper too, although I'm still a little awkward at that part. Floating between several floors in the hospital,  I take women from High Risk OB down to see their babies in the NICU and care for heart surgery patients on the Cardiac Care Unit right after they've been in the ICU.  All in all, it has been a pretty amazing experience, one for which I am immensely thankful and one that is affirming my desire to continue pursuing nursing.  The side effect of this new little health care gig is that I'm inching my way toward becoming a wee bit OCD.  While reaching for a sample at Whole Foods yesterday I had a flash of all the patients I saw the night before- patients with MRSA, the flu, HIV, and other sorts of contact precautions.  These folks were walking the streets a few days before.  Friends, if you remember one thing from this blog entry, remember this.  Skip the samples.  There is gross stuff out there.  No matter how good that salsa looks in the aisle...Don't DO it!

I keep putting books on hold at the library, and they keep arriving at a pace that exceeds my reading ability.  Here is the current stack on my bedside table.   Since most of these will probably not get read,  I'll go ahead and give you a little plug for at least one of the books.  The book on the top is titled The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie.  I read about this book on a blog  that is often helpful in thinking about Christianity, writing, and how we relate to stories as human beings.  The book is the story of four writers- Flannery O'Conner, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day.  Elie looks at how these writers integrate their faith into their fiction.  In doing so he tells a story about the "way we look to great books and writers to help us make sense of our experience" (taken from the inside book cover).  He describes the journey these writers take as one of "pilgrimage."  The theme of pilgrimage is one I return to again and again in my own life.  So when Elie, in the Prologue to his book, writes, "In the story of these four writers, the pattern of pilgrimage is also a pattern of reading and writing," I am hooked.

ps. I get a grammar pass for this entry today.  Didn't have time because I need to go put on fifty coats to go get my children from school!