What do you do to defeat the winter blues?

I have been going with beer and House of Cards. Season 2 came out yesterday.. squeeee

Nowt, I like winter, besides, can’t change it so might as well embrace it.

I am totally with you on being sick of the weather. When I’m not at work, on my day off, I try to get out and take care of something – like today I took my car in to be serviced, then I did a little shopping and stopped at a pizza parlor for a slice. When I’m home, alone with my daughter at my parents, I am elated because I get to watch whatever I want on TV (not kid shows). I sometimes may go to dinner with friends, which is helpful. I am also trying to use the time to organize crap at home.

What I’ve been thinking and saying is that I really don’t know how people live in places like Alaska.

Usually, here in southern NY, it snows, and then within two or three days it’s 90% melted and then it may not snow for a few more weeks. This winter, it’s been snowing at least once a week and has been very cold so it’s not melting and just keeps accumulating. Schools have been closed at least once a week and I’ve missed at least 4 days so far within a month and a half.

I got my s/o some roses yesterday, salmon colored, but god they smell good. That and a new Springsteen CD

I do like winter and snow – but here are some suggestions for you:
Listen to some upbeat music, maybe discover some new artists;
Re-read some favorite books from your youth;
Invite some friends over for dinner;
Volunteer at your local shelter or food bank.

I exercise and jam with my boys in our studio. Music is an antidote to many things that may cloud out brains with dreary wintery cabin fever thoughts!

If I can go somewhere warm and sunny in January or early February and drink in some vitamin D it is a great temporary help.

If I can’t travel I heat up my house very warm every so often so I can be comfortable now and then. I was just in NYC visiting my sister and it was so hot in her paratment sometimes we cracked the windows for fresh air. It was so much better than how I used to keep my house barely warm enough when I lived in TN and NC.

Taking Zumba classes helped me get through the winter. Any exercise really. Water aerobics, basketball, running, anything you like. Even mall walking. Many people go to the mall before it opens and you can get to know a few or go with a friend. You don’t have to go before store hours obviously, but that is when a lot of people go to avoid the crowds.

Meeting up with friends a couple times a month helped. We belonged to a car club and we met every month for dinner and usually one additional time per month for an additional event. There were some of the same core people almost every time, but then about half the group was a combination of new people and people who show up to events here and there. I once read that people who have a regular meet-up at least once a month with some sort of social group that those people tend to be happier. Church would count too I would guess. In TN people were very social. Potluck dinners, wine tasting parties, casual dinner parties. I think it did add to contentment and made the weather less bothersome.

Cooking projects help me when I’m in on a snowy day.

In that case I change my answer to going to @janbb‘s would make me feel better.

@JLeslie Made chili and a banana layer cake on Wednesday. Want to come over for some?

I do, but I get the feeling you are about 1,000 miles from me and not just 10.

I have found that the two different NPR stations I can tune into have afforded me many distractions during this incredibly bad weather where I have been stuck…really stuck…inside for long stretches. I never remembered a winter this severe.

This morning I heard a wonderful interview with Maxine Kumin, the poet, who just died. She read many of her poems aloud. That led me to rediscover them online.

Some other examples;

The Met.opera today; Die Frau Ohne Schatten

The only Olympic skier from east Timor, where there is no snow.

The weird drink of Quebec City during carnival, called caribou. The Quebecois man-in-the-street couldn’t name the ingredients.

There is always napping, marathon phone calls, and tea and a good novel. And when really desperate, the treadmill. I have also started a new photo series; the icicle collection. (And, in desperation,I caught up on my my mending while watching the Scandinavian women cross-country ski for days on end.)

Enjoy the weather.

Here in Austin, all I have to do is make it through a couple of sub-freezing days to then enjoy mid-70s weather. Of course, 24 hours later it’s back to freezing… which is how this winter has been going here.

I think about my other worse problems.