Let it first and foremost be stated that I really do love UNI and living in Cedar Falls nine months out of the year. The buildings are beautiful, food is within walking distance and isn’t bad at all, we occasionally get such horrible snow that it cancels class, and there are a handful of people here who I just plain enjoy being around.
And then I remember that we don’t have trees around the edge of campus.
Now, you might think this isn’t such a big deal. The middle of campus has a hefty number of trees and they’re beautiful–especially right now, while their leaves are changing colors like a multitude of tiny bosses. However, I tend to spend a lot of time traveling around the less tree’d areas. Let me tell you; this is one freaking windy campus.
I kid you not, I was literally being shoved to one side as I was walking back from the dining center today. It was like some small, invisible gremlin was pushing my legs while I was trying to walk. It’s unnerving! Even in areas with a scattering of trees, the wind simply cannot be stopped. I can only ask, “What is this shit?”
And on top of that, it’s cold. And the cold wouldn’t be so bad at this temperature if it weren’t so damn windy! One could probably get away with wearing a heavy-ish sweatshirt and still be comfortable, but with the wind buffeting you and acting like some freakish chill-bearing virus, you have to wear a fur-lined coat on top of a sweat shirt just so that the wind doesn’t sneak through the weaving of your shirt and ninja some frostbite on to your unsuspecting skin. I would go so far as to say it’s safer to wear thick gloves and a scarf. Even a hat isn’t terribly useful.
Personally, I feel great pity for those who went out without expecting this this morning. I only went out briefly before class, so I knew it was going to be a painfully brisk haul to class later. If you woke up and trudged outside without prior warning, I bet you’d be pretty sorry.
At least it stopped raining. Yesterday it was similarly windy and it was rainy. Walking outside yesterday was a lot like getting stabbed with little frigid bullets while you tried to cross the street. Awful.
Everyone is complaining that it’s supposed to rain and snow tonight, or that it’s cold. Well you can just can it because I would much rather have some cold weather than this friggin’ wind. Now, if we had wind and rain and snow, sure. I could understand not wanting that sort of weather. But I’ll be damned if I’d rather have this wind than some normal Iowa weather.
On the bright side, my dorm building is tremendously warm. And while this is fairly annoying once you’ve adjusted and you start sweating, the warmth is fantastic when you’ve just walked in from an ice tornado. Will’s apartment isn’t too bad, either, even though they keep the door open. Somehow the living room manages to be perfectly comfortable. I think it might be magic.
That’s all for now. I’ve given up on updating this blog with recent happenings, so I’ll try to populate it with potentially entertaining rants. I can probably come up with one every day. I’m pretty grumpy like that.
