Moral of the Story: Snow Day Edition

Today is a snow day in Abilene. Most everyone is inside (except those who enjoy sledding behind a 4WD car on the white, icy roads) and the only place I plan to go is to the grocery store to get items for baking a pie or cookies or something. Even that errand is a maybe. Perhaps I'll be productive later in the day, but for now, I'm going to share some things I've learned in the past few weeks.

1. Don't judge a TV show by its, err, synopsis? I've been watching Call the Midwife with my roommate, and I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite British drama. (Haahhahah, jk jk, Downton Abbey is on January 5th and I've missed everyone so much and I wish I could hug Mary and Branson and make everything right in their world, and also pet Isis, also sorry, this was not meant to be about Downton!) It follows a group of midwives in the East End of London in the 1950s, and each show is more dramatic than the last. If you can get past all the birthing scenes, it's really pretty entertaining, with love interests and drama that could rival the most intense Grey's Anatomy episodes. Even the nuns they live and work with have some spicy plot lines now and then. Since I always love a good medical drama, Call the Midwife is just my cup of tea.

2. I wish candles would last forever. I bought an Illume candle at the store where I work the other week (Surprises on S. 14th, if you feel so inclined to drop by), and it's already almost halfway gone! It's a fantastic pumpkin scent that makes my room smell like fall. I guess I'll just have to move on and buy a Christmas candle...

3. Mindy Kaling is still one of my favorite people on TV. And I really hope this is the title of an episode of the Mindy Project coming soon, because it may actually be the best title ever.

4. I have an exciting trip coming up that I'll talk about--probably at ad nauseam--soon, but it requires a stay-over in London. The moral here is that I miss that enchanting city and the semester I spent there in 2009. If you can afford to go, both financially and in terms of your graduation timeline, going abroad is the best thing you can do when you're in college, and I recommend it to everyone. Not only do you learn about another culture, but you realize how much bigger the world is than the town you grew up in, or your college campus, or even your state. You live and bond with people whom you would have never met otherwise, and forge lifelong friendships and relationships that may be the most meaningful of your life. For me, I discovered a lot about myself in a small flat in Islington, and on chilled walks through Hyde Park, and in jaunts through Borough Market under London Bridge. Places I had never even heard of before were my temporary home, and "out of my comfort zone" was no longer scary.

I once read that travel is the only thing you spend money on that makes you richer, and I couldn't agree more.

Those clouds. 

Have a warm, wonderful weekend!!