A Taste of Northern November

This morning, Connie and I stood in the doorway of the manse and peered out into the rain. From the rate in which the rain was falling and how hard the wind was blowing, bringing a cold blast of air into the already drafty house, one would guess that I am actually back in the Midwest, or at least the mountains of North Carolina. It feels like the Northern Hemisphere's November today. And has for the past three days. This is not good for my state of mind here. If it's warm and hot here then I forgot what it is like back "home" right now (and by home I mean Ohio, North Carolina, and Illinois). I forget that holidays are coming up and that today is my father's 61^st birthday.

But when it's as cold as it is today, it is harder for me to forget the warm colors of the harvested fields in Illinois, the grey, damp sky hovering over Bluffton University, and the fallen leaves of Asheville, that leave the mountains bare and hazy. Actually, the hills around Pietermaritzburg sometimes remind me of NC (not that I can actually see them from BCI's property, which is probably a good thing. If I could, I would probably daily wonder why I am pretending to be in South Africa when my parents live just down the road.

I also get very apathetic when the days are like this. I'm too cold to really do anything effectively except drink large quantities of tea (and thus make routine visits to the bathroom). Nor do I really have any motivation to be here, especially when no one showed up to my ESL class today and I hardly had any work to do. Like crossing off the days of my daily devotional paper, I watch the days slowly waste away, trying my hardest not to think about how many days, how many weeks, how many months we have left. (eight).

This isn't good. When I am apathetic, I miss things like central heating and listening to the sultry voice of Sarah Barellies as I make the long drive from Ohio to Asheville.

Eight is my favorite number. So I have this childish notion that since we only have 8 more months, things have to be looking up. And for the most part they are until I am utterly changed by the weather.

Thank God I didn't go to Sweden. I am sure I would've been a cold mess all the time instead of just occasionally.

Yet, in the midst of the monotony of my current state (which is why I haven't been blogging lately), I am glad for little rays of sunshine in all forms, whether it is the actual sun or reasons to celebrate.

This past Tuesday was Gabby's birthday, so on Monday Connie and I did our best to "sneak" around and figure out ways to make her day awesome. I think we succeeded. In honor of "the Wiebe" we had two days of desserts leading up to the big day followed by a large Chinese food feast, complete with egg rolls, and then peanut butter chocolate cake and dairy ice cream (don't get too excited people – the dairy ice cream's second ingredient?: butter. Gross and weird). So all those things were awesome. Maybe we just need to have a reason to celebrate life more often that way I don't feel like taking a nap forever.

Maybe I just need to try harder to find good things.

A combo of both would be nice, I think…