Outerwear and Underwear

 Let's just keep answering questions for a bit, shall we? 

I thought about whether it was misleading to say I hadn't worn a winter coat yet this year. I don't think it was, really, although the winter coat I was looking for was my slightly nicer, dressing up winter coat. I have a long red puffy thing, although I'm not sure where that is either.  Canada does get cold, and I do not live in the most temperate of provinces. We've had a relatively mild winter for us up until the polar vortex, but it's been below zero quite a few times. 

The issue is me. I don't really get cold. No, that's maybe not true. I don't feel the cold like most people, and I would rather be cold than warm. I'm not sure exactly when it started - I think I was maybe in grad school. I remember I used to go places wearing sweatshirts in university. Anyway, it was long before perimenopause, but perimenopause has definitely made it worse. I've had my thyroid checked a few times and it's never quite normal but never quite off enough to do anything about - I believe the medical term is 'wonky'.

So when I'm going to work I might wear a light cardigan in the car, but not usually - I'd rather be cold for the four or five minutes it takes the car to warm up than too warm once it does. When I walk Lucy, if it's cold I wear a long-sleeved shirt and a spring jacket windbreaker type thing. If it's windy I have a neck warmer. My hands do get cold, now more than ever - even gloves aren't always enough. I'm sure I look super sexy wearing a short-sleeved shirt and fleecy mittens while driving. 

I can't remember if I told the story of the time we went on our regular August camping trip and at night it just... didn't get any cooler. It was 30 degrees or more around the clock (87 Fahrenheit - I know some states get hotter, but this is plenty hot enough for me, especially with the humidity). Sleeping in the tent was miserable and almost everyone headed home early. 

When I got home I was determined that as God is my witness, I would never be that hot again, so I researched battery-operated fans. I bought two, and as I realized that they were useful, and then quickly essential, not just for camping, but for in the bathroom so I wasn't so sweaty that I needed another shower by the time I dried my hair, or for on my desk at school, or by my computer at home, and for sticking in my purse for over-heated restaurants. I have a little fan-farm on the edge of the counter where I charge them (I have...let's just say...more than two, now), and I rotate them so there's always a couple ready to go. There's one beside me right now, at the table typing, and usually on a little table while I'm watching tv. In the kitchen I have a bigger one. At night in the bedroom I have two, a ceiling fan and a stand fan, usually on even in the winter. Once I turned the ceiling fan off for a bit and every time I walked in I got kind of scared of the way it looked while not moving. I have issues. 

My Thursday library is kept way too warm for me. I have the fan on my desk, but I'm not at my desk for most of the shift, so by the end I'm fairly uncomfortable. I think I do a lot of racing around trying to do things really quickly, which is not necessary, and I'm trying to remind myself to calm the fuck down, but by the time I leave I am happy for that freezing air to hit my skin. 

I've learned that it's pretty much useless to look at the temperature and figure out if I might actually be cold - unless it's minus forty, in which case I will be cold (this was almost a relief to discover). Not that it doesn't get a little old having people miming shivering while looking at me, or old men yelling "put on a coat!", or "aren't you cold?" 

Eve wears a proper winter jacket, and a hat. Angus is more like me - sometimes only a hoodie, has been known to shovel the driveway in flip-flops. My family is used to my ways now, except my mother, who feels compelled to comment on it pretty much every single time she sees me. I guess it's just our thing. 

Now, the musical. Hair was actually the production one year when I was in university back in.... a long time ago. I have the sense that some of the scenes are moved around or altered at the director's discretion. They did do the naked scene in that first production - it was the first scene after the intermission and, in my opinion, added nothing to the value of the play. I'm not opposed to nakedness but this was basically people chanting, then dropping their cloaks and walking slowly away. In the more recent production, that scene was the very first one, and nobody got naked. The Berger character did strip down to his skivvies and prance around in a very bold and brave manner while doing his opening monologue, and this seemed much more appropriate to the plot to me.

There was no White Boys song this time. The Hare Krishna song was changed to Marijuana. Sodomy, cunnilingus and masturbation? All still there, which makes sense to me. All in all, I thought they did a really good job of updating things and steering clear of the overtly racist and questionable content.