It's all kinds of freezing

So, it's been really fucking cold here. On Saturday, it was mostly in the subzero range. I've never ever been in this kind of weather, and it's weird. I went to my wine class, and I took a cab there. But on the way back, I decided to save some cash and take the El, which was about a 15 minute walk from the bar (and yes, I was at a bar and drinking at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon).

Now, to paint the picture properly, it was actually a really pretty, sunny day. Keep in mind, this is rare and I don't see the sun very often, so although I know it's cold, instinctively I want to be in the sun. Thus, I started walking. At first, it wasn't so bad. I was bundled up properly with my face covered and everything, and I was doing fine. Then, breathing became kinda difficult. Air that cold is very dry, so breathing it in through either my nose or mouth started to hurt like hell. To counteract this, my nose started running like mad. Now, I'm walking and wiping my nose and trying to keep my face covered all at the same time.

Then, my quads started to go numb. I never thought this was possible, since the thighs are a pretty meaty part of the body. However, I was just wearing jeans, and my jacket's not long enough to cover my thighs. I had boots on, which covered up my shins, but there was only one layer of clothing separating my thighs from the cold. This was not smart. As my quads go numb, I slow down and can't walk nearly as fast. So at this point, I start fearing for my life. I mean really, what the fuck. Thankfully, I made it, but it was rather painful. Once I got home, I immediately changed into my comfy, warm clothes. My thighs were bright red like you would not believe and cold as ice. I'm pretty sure I'd be the first dumbass in Chicago history to get frostbite of the thighs. God, this place sucks so hard.

Anyway, the wine class turned out to be fun. There were two glasses of wine in front of me when I first sat down, red and white. The red was for the class, and the white was a 'welcome wine.' Hehe. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that we got a starter wine at the beginning of a class where we'd be drinking wine for 90 minutes. I actually also learned a lot about wines. For example, in Illinois, two-buck chuck is called three-buck chuck because of shipping or some such nonsense, which makes me want to move back to California even more. Paying more for that crap wine is a crime. We started the tastings with the red wine that was sitting there, then the instructor poured four other wines that had been doctored to exaggerate certain flavors. This was painful. I started to become afraid of drinking the wine because it tasted so bad. It was seriously like some sort of sadistic initiation ritual into the world of wine. Adding lemon to wine = not pleasant. But you all know I drank it anyway. :)

Well, there'll be more updates on the class and life in general as more stuff hopefully happens. Maybe. Right now, I'm sleepy.