Winter Blues

UGH.  Only about six days into Winter and having just made it through Christmas, we were slammed with a N'oreaster with blizzard-like results, forcing most of the Jersey coast into a state of paralysis for nearly a week between the two major holidays.  Three days home from work because of the storm, I ate up all the cookies and cakes leftover from Christmas, simmered a pot of soup, a crock of stew and enjoyed alot of television time with the remote while my poor husband froze his ass off shoveling and snowblowing our large driveway, walkway and part of our deck.  It was great.

Oh, I mean, you know, it was great when he was all done shovelling and could hang out with me.  That's really what I meant, I swear it.

So much so that I began thumbing through my guide books and doing internet research, picking out destinations for weekend getaways and vacations for the year ahead.  Since the past year was spent hiking and driving through the Adirondacks and Finger Lakes pretty much by my desire, I am inclined this year to listen more to my husband's desires for a vacation which are to swim, relax, beach and stay closer to home.  While he would love to fly out to an exotic island, he recognizes that we cannot afford such a venture at this time, nor can I commit to being too far from my elderly mother who is in my sole care. 

My birthday is in January and I announced recently that I hated having a Winter birthday.  As a kid, I never had a fun birthday party at the pool or beach.  I had cold birthdays when we couldn't play outside and it was dark by dinnertime.  As I got older, my birthday plans always seemed to compete with snow storms or the Superbowl.  It sucked!  While we mulled over a list of things we could do for my special day, my husband looked at me in all earnst and declared, "Your birthday really sucks, you know that?  It's too damn cold to do anything."

Determined to make the best of it, I spent hours searching for a nice getaway, but the more I looked, the more I found wonderful places to stay when the days were longer and the weather was warmer.  In fact, I found one B&B at a lovely historic home that I fell in love with in New Hope, PA, situated on 4 acres with gardens, and two lovely pools that I booked right away for Tom's July birthday, especially after reading all the glowing reviews on TripAdvisor and elsewhere.

At that moment, I decided to move my birthday to May so I could enjoy a warm weather birthday.  Accordingly, I'm no longer a January birthday and I've switched dates with my mother.  I told her, "Look at it this way, at least you know you'll likely make it to 82 if you celebrate it in January.  And I get to stay just a tiny bit younger for almost five months.  It's a win-win!"  She agreed it was a good deal.

Thus,with my new birthdate set for May, Tom and I decided on a three day weekend at a lovely cottage in Cape May Point near the bayside.  In addition, as part of a regular vacation week, we have booked a whole week in Cape May on the Atlantic side for September in order to enjoy both the mid-Spring and late Summer weather for hiking, nature walks and yes, even bird watching.  Seriously, that's who we've become now.  I bought a book about birds native to the area to watch for and I have the binoculars and camera ready.  We've bcome that farty couple and we don't care.  We have so little peace and quiet in our daily lives that running away even just an hour from home to watch birds migrate seems like paradise, catching the prime weather just before the deluge of traffic to the Jersey Shore begins and then again after it fades.

Both cottage rentals offer private balconies overlooking gardens where we can enjoy morning coffee before heading out to the parks for the day to explore the bayside nature reserves, enjoy a sunset, climb the lighthouse, or just relax on the beach before returning at day's end to enjoy a glass of wine overlooking the gardens again and taking in the fresh salt air.  Our plans incorporate things we each like to do separately, along with things we both enjoy together, without spending crazy money on airfare or gas.  The cottages each have small kitchens where we can prepare breakfast and lunch, saving hundreds of dollars on restaurant fare.  While we enjoy eating out and I am reimbursed for restaurants I review for Metromix, we also enjoy cooking and dining privately and we know how to pack a cooler well.  I'm already working on a grocery list and menus.  I'm not normally so organized (or anal, if you will), but what the hell, I have all winter to think about it, why not?  A vacation for us is being us anywhere but home.

The bad new is, we have to now wait 5 months for just the first excursion which makes this winter even more unbearable as the biting cold winds envelope our home and grey clouds gather, threatening to dump more snow on our now receded, dirty snow mounds remaining from the last storm of last week.  I'm sure in that time, I will come up with more places to visit and things to do the first nice weekend come Spring.  For now, however, we're braced for yet another snow storm and I'm thinking of a nice, hot pot of curried chicken soup simmering on the stove while my husband battles the elements outside once again. 

Someday, I tell my husband, we'll live somewhere warm year round so we can just pick up and go anywhere and enjoy a weekend, even when it gets dark by dinnertime.  And when we do, I'll go back to celebrating my birthday in January.