Weather or Not

God has smiled on Princeton for the past three weeks. New Jersey weather is not known for...anything, really, aside from being gray and drab. Yet for twenty-odd days, we've enjoyed a bumper crop of sunshine and warm weather. I expected to spend my first month here swaddled in protective layers of cotton and down. Instead, I can walk down to the library wearing a t-shirt.*

Today, things changed. Today, winter came to Princeton. Not real winter weather, with cold and snow and frostbite, but the idea of winter. A foggy gray drizzle fell from morning until night. I kept waiting for the clouds to open and for the sun to dissipate the gloom, but it seems the summer sun is now stone-dead. So much for t-shirts. Time to break out the parkas, the scarves, the gloves, the beanie with the Carolina logo.

I feel a little anxious. It'll be the first time I've faced a "real winter" in a decade. Has North Carolina made me soft? Probably. Making it to mid-December without suffering hypothermia would be a moral victory.

*And pants. Most days.