Wow, it’s tough to think about whitewater rafting, hiking through rain forests and up volcanoes, or touring a coffee plantation when you need five layers of clothing to walk your apparently-impervious-to-cold dog. I tried to pretend the crispy crunching of snow sounded like waves lapping on the shore, but I must admit, my imagination lacks that level of delusion. I beg to disagree–you are totally delusional.

I tried to imagine smelling salt air,  fragrant flowers, tropical foods, but even if the snot hadn’t been frozen in my nose, the frigid air doesn’t hold much odor (a teeny benefit when you have a wet dog) and if it did, it was filtered through my fleece face mask. Anybody smell the desperation of a sunshine girl stuck in the frozen tundra?

The polar vortex is am extreme example, but serves to heighten the reason we need to have a trip (or in Steven’s case about a dozen trips) to a warm place booked and planned during the winter. Coping and hoping rise to an art when it’s -20F degrees and the groundhog is likely to see 12 more weeks of winter. Luckily, we will be breaking up the endless winter with our week in Costa Rica where there will be warm water, whitewater rafting, rain forests, and coffee plantations.

Unlike us, we are behind in the planning part of the trip. We know where we are staying, but that’s about the extent of it. I think the cognitive dissonance is too strong to overcome this week. Maybe by the weekend (when the temperature is forecast to 45-50 degrees over today’s joy) we will be able to get that spreadsheet filled out.