We have about a week or two until spring officially hits, but Old Man Winter hasn’t let up on us yet. Probably because he wasn’t doing his job in the beginning of winter. Today the county (and many other surrounding counties) issued a level 3 emergency; which means only emergency vehicles should be on the streets. A huge winter storm hit us yesterday and thankfully the snow has finally stopped. Total snowfalls in the city are anywhere between 15-17″ (we somehow ended up with most of the snow) and we have a snowdrift in our driveway that’s probably about 3′. Since we got a new puppy about two weeks ago now, I had to go out in the freezing cold and watch as the snow continuously fell and covered up all the shoveled areas. It was hopeless to shovel any of it during the day because within 30 minutes to an hour, it looked like you didn’t. However, the new puppy, Maggie, seemed quite infatuated with the snow (and oddly enough she has seen snow before) and continuously jumped into the deep areas of snow and appeared to be swimming in it!

Those pictures were taken earlier in the day. It looks much deeper than that now. I didn’t get a picture of our other two dogs (yes, we have a whopping 3 dogs in the house) in the snow, but Max (the oldest, a boxer) hates the cold so he’s in and out and Tara (the mini schnauzer) is like a black dot. Maggie’s a soft-coated wheaten terrier. Hopefully I don’t catch a cold from being out in the cold today!

I took the time today to do absolutely nothing! It’s nearly 10 p.m. and I still haven’t worked on my story. And I call myself an aspiring writer. However, I did manage to create 3 new avatars today. The avatar I’m currently using has a duplicate with an animation in the back instead of being a still, and the other features Princess Maddy from the upcoming Disney film, The Frog Princess. I got the picture from a Czech site and they called her Tiana. The last time I checked, she was called Maddy, so maybe they changed her name? Either way, Maddy/Tiana looks uber great. I can’t wait until it comes out!!

Edit: I did it! I have successfully added 34 smilies to my blog. You can even use them when you post a comment too. I didn’t have so many when I first started making them (maybe around 10-15  ) I got on a roll after my brother came home from our grandparents and he even helped make some for me!!  Enjoy them as much I do!!  

I may be an American, but I did grow up with one of my parents being Asian. That being the case, I’m familiar with most American superstitions such as the number 13 is unlucky and if you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back. I’m also familiar with a few Korean superstitions and thanks to anime, Japanese superstitions as well. However, what I wasn’t expecting to find on the internet when I was making my not-so-daily blog rounds was this question posed on a website:

Is it just me or does the whole “being out in the cold makes you sick” myth seem unusually common and serious in anime? Colds are caused by a virus. Being chilled or wet has very little to do with catching a cold. In America we have old wives tales like chocolate causing zits, gum takes weeks to digest in your stomach, etc. But these are told in a rather tongue-in-cheek fashion and are said to children who don’t know any better.

However, in anime it seems that people take the “cold giving you a cold” myth very seriously. If a character is a little bit wet or a little bit cold it’s always “we must get you warmed up and dry or you will get a fever!” Characters are even depicted as actually getting sick because they didn’t warm up! Perhaps it is being said in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. They don’t really believe it to be true, do they?

Personally for me, I never really gave those scenes much thought. I never thought they were silly and in fact, I just accepted it. Why? Ever since I was a little girl, my mother always told me that if I stayed outside too long in the cold, I would, in fact, end up with a cold. My father always reassured my mother that both my brother and I would be fine and that the cold has nothing to do with making us ill. Although I know this to be true, I still can’t help but come quickly inside during the winter. I’ve been programmed with that thought and since reading that question, it kind of made me realize that there are a lot of those scenes in anime. I was surprised that I just overlooked something like that but I can’t help it because that’s how I was brought up.

The answer to the question did mention a few other popular superstitions the Japanese believe, and I must admit that one of them was yet another one I was brought up to believe: If you give a cold to someone else, you’ll be cured of it. Now that it was brought to my attention, it is kind of silly to believe in it, but it was an “unconscious part of” my everyday life. However, I will go on and believe them, and then laugh at myself when I do catch myself hurrying inside when it’s cold or trying to give my cold to someone else.

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Argh! Why in the world am I up right now? Technically this is usually the time when I’m wide awake (10:16 p.m.). However, I had to work overtime today (I despise the word ‘overtime’ right now) so that means getting up at 5 in the morning. When I’m sleepy, I suppose I might be a little cranky…but those are just rumors floating around, at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

My brother’s birthday party is tomorrow. We would be celebrating it Sunday, which is his actual birthday, if it didn’t happen to land on Super Bowl Sunday. Who’s playing anyway? The Giants and the Patriots? The Patriots will most likely win again, but I think it’ll be funny if the Giants beat them with an overwhelming lead. It won’t happen, but if it did, that would be great even though I’m not a football fan. I just watch the Super Bowl for the half-time show and commercials, which by the way, have deteriorated immensely in quality and fun since the whole Janet Jackson scandal.

Back to the subject as to why I’m up at this ungodly hour right now. My mother was baking a cake for my brother’s birthday party, and though I was going to head to bed, the temptation of cake batter kept me awake. If I  end up with salmonella from the raw eggs, then it would have been the best tasting disease I’ve ever had. My mother even let me have the little bit that was left of the icing after she iced the cake. It’s so rich and so good! I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a sugar rush from eating the icing itself.

Oh, and as a side note, I added a new avatar. It features Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani from my new manga love: Love*Com which is short for Lovely Complex.