I mean, I really REALLY hate cold weather. Last Thursday, especially. It was 5 (degrees, not AM) when I woke up Thursday morning. 5!!! I was sitting in my half-wake/half-sleep stupor sucking down coffee, and as soon as Joe Pennington told me the temperature, I knew it was going to be one of THOSE days. (Yes, I firmly believe the weathermen are speaking directly to me through my TV.) And by one of THOSE days, I mean a day when it's so cold I'm required to wear socks and layers of clothing. And that just doesn't work for me!! Getting out of the house with layers, socks, and OCD is ridiculous.
The clothing layers were strangely OK for the most part. I pulled on a long sleeve school t-shirt, zipped up a fleece, threw on a scarf, and called it good! No twisted sleeves, nothing too tight or restrictive, just cozy layers. I was rocking out the cold-weather clothing...or so I thought.
I pulled a coordinating pair of shoes out of the box and pondered my sock options. Workout socks are always OK, I even kind of like them...compression socks typically don't have a toe line thing, and they don't bunch at the toes or in other strange places like other socks do. But ankle length compression socks don't cut it when the temperature is in the single digits. Then I scoured through my mid calf athletic socks, those are sometimes OK. In fact, I have one pair with a paint stained toe that have been a trusty go-to since 2004. But they were MIA!! So I moved on to regular white pull on sock choices...they are typically warm, functional, and I have a hearty collection of various brands, thanks to my mom! Even though she knew of my sock issues (she forced socks on to my feet, with me screaming bloody murder, every single day of kindergarten-there's a cold weather blog about that from last year's polar vortex), she stuffed my Christmas stocking full of socks. For years!! But none of my pull on white socks felt tall enough to stop the up-the-pant-leg draft on a near 0 degree day. I was going to have to go all out, for the whole enchilada, and find some tall, warm socks. Oh boy.
I tried on an expensive wooly pair that Matthew gave me. They were too itchy. I tried on a pair of spotted knee socks. The dots felt funny on the inside of the socks that touched my feet. I tried on a pair of heavy hiking socks, they felt too thick with my shoes. I was running out of time!! I was going to be late to work. I imagined the embarrassment as I explained to my principal why I was late to school. I was beginning to get super frustrated. I had kindergarten flashbacks and thought I might burst in to tears! I had to calm myself down by imagining my dad singing This is the Day (like he used to do on the way to school after every sock debacle), as I dug feverishly through my sock basket. I pulled out 5 warmish pairs and ran back downstairs to try them on with my shoes. None of them felt right, but I was out of time. So I pulled on the ones that felt best out of the 8 pairs strewn by the door. The tops were a little stretched out and baggy from pulling them on and ripping them off, but I was determined to make them work. Then I noticed the toe line. It was hideous!! It wasn't symmetrical on each foot. I could cover it up with my shoes and be OK...right?! Wrong. I bet I took my shoes off under my desk at least five times to straighten the toe line thing. I'm sure my office-mate thought I was insane. I counted down the minutes until I could go home and rip the socks off my feet, but I made it. I survived another cold weather sock day. Barely.
I was sure to wear only compression socks through the rest of the cold snap that lasted an entire week. I didn't care if they matched my outfit or my legs got a draft. At least they felt OK.
