Without Her Diadem

Winter has come and humbled me.

And if I’m being honest, it arrived months ago. I’ve just been too busy learning how to dress myself to finish this blog post.

Last year’s winter seduced me, made me fall in love with the city under false pretenses: mild snow flurries, steam coming from the steam grates, up and around my downtown apartment, towering buildings blocking the winter wind.

It’s different now. Colder. And still, some say this winter errs on the side of mild, too. Layer! they say. It’s all about layering. Until a month ago, the only layers I owned were coffee-shop-hoppin, errand-runnin, maybe-I-can-manage-a-morning-run-then-get-back-in-bed layers. My grown-up life demands different layers now: we-know-it’s-cold-but-you-still-have-to-work layers, its-not-too-cold-to-make-it-to-class-Michelle! layers, and gloves. I need several pairs of gloves, apparently.

Even after I began understanding layers, it took me more than thirty minutes just to get dressed on those especially cold mornings. I figured out…