Cold with a chance of snow and...no more flip flops

and so it begins. the chicago winter.

it's about 22 degrees right now and expected to hit 17 degrees tonight. it was so cold today that my 8 minute walk to school caused my thighs to go numb by the time i got to the school building. you think i joke. this california girl does NOT joke when it comes to cold weather.

i thought about three things on my way home tonight.

first, i thought about my conversation with AbeL yesterday and how it's so amazing to think about the little snow flurries that were blowing by today. How the same natural element can turn into snow today and flutter onto the windows of my living room, be added to my diet coke at lunch, cleanse me in the shower when i get home and evaporate before i can even notice it. it's pretty mindblowing to think that this was created in nature somehow...

second, i thought about how fast life just passes us by - it's another winter already. i bumped into a friend i haven't seen in a while and he drove me home tonight. i was telling him it's so easy to hang out with my friends, but there are a bunch of people i used to bump into all the time last year whom i loved to see and hang out with. but now, it takes a conscious effort to try and contact them - which is too much work for most people, including myself most of the time.

it's so easy to just live each day without really thinking about what we do or how we live. in my leadership class, we talk a lot about how all the great leaders we've studied always took time to reflect on what they were doing, what their vision was for themselves and how to use those realizations to achieve their goals. and i think most of us just try to get through each day without ever asking "why?"

and finally, the thought that keeps ringing again and again in my mind when the weather starts to change like this: I heart California.