Is this not one of the loveliest things you've ever seen? Simple and surprising, like how 'cellar door' is thought to be one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language. And oh yeah, winter. I woke up to my windows being pelted with what I thought was heavy rain, only to go outside to a mostly dry pavement, and cold, sharp hail deftly pelting me on the head. When I was growing up in China, there was no snow. When I came here, snow meant overly anxious parents making me wear long johns and endless homemade, well-meaning but largely embarrassing knitwear. I like the idea of snow. I like to look at it, to watch it fall. I like it in Christmas movies with Diane Keaton, and I love the idea of being snuggled up in a cozy cabin while the snow falls unbridled outside. But I do not like to spend time in snow, make snow angels, or see the brown slush that immediately ruins the snow, which then lingers around too long like the horrendous eyesore that it is.

-Karen