I celebrated my 38th birthday yesterday in the frozen tundra of Bennington, Vermont, where Wendy and I are currently housed in the lovely Swan Dorm for our second to last residency. Since this is graduate school, we celebrated the old school way: about ten people gathered in our dorm's living room -- which sits just off of our private suite (as the only married couple in the MFA program, they hook us up with a two bedroom with jack-n-jill bathroom, thus making us the only students with a private bath...and the warmest students as well, since we get to have another person in bed with us, which is important since it's fucking freezing here) -- and played hours of drunken charades. Since I also have a head cold, I played drunken/high on Dayquil charades, which suprisingingly made me quite adept at figuring out clues, though also made me feel like someone had kicked me in the face and subbed out my knees for egg noodles. But I'm all about sacrificing for the cause of drunken birthdays buttressed with legal over the counter stimulants.
As usual, Wendy and I are vexed by the idea that we are currently experiencing temperatures that are 100 degrees less than an average summer day in La Quinta. Today, for instance, it was 9 degrees, but felt like 5 degrees, which felt to me like a razor blade. I have once again discovered that snot has a relatively low freezing point and that snow, while pretty, eventually melts on your clothing and then just becomes cold water. Who knew?
The upside, apart from the obvious terminal degree and all that, is that Bennington is positively gorgeous in the winter, as the photo below should attest.
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Reminds me of the day you and Lee did the book signing at Barnes And Nobles in Seattle in the middle of the winter. BRRR
http://mvbarer.blogspot.com/search?q=brothers+appear+at+barnes+and+noble
Posted by: Mike Barer | January 11, 2009 at 10:30 PM
9 above, that;s almost a heat wave. Here in MN we'll get to have -15 for a temp tonight and with windchill, -35-40 and 4 inches of snow. Being married and having the jack and jill bathrooms sounds nice and for a real test, us the NyQuil instead of Dayquil, more challenging and you do much better at pictionary and willy wonka seems like a genius with the movie.
Posted by: Capt | January 12, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Happy birthday!!!
Posted by: Brenna | January 13, 2009 at 09:11 AM
charades??? i am beginning to questions my love for you
Posted by: jack henry | January 20, 2009 at 05:26 PM
tod, you always remind me that i should be writing more!!! I'm really looking forward to the short stories--and you know, there are few californians that can suck it up and endure the freakin' cold like you did. you get 3 gold stars. and hey, try to be a little less productive this year. you make the rest of us look bad!
Posted by: Angela | February 02, 2009 at 01:02 PM