Thoughts Transposed

You've all undoubtedly heard it by now (or felt it by now)...a cold, Artic blast has overcome Chicagoland and the Middle West. I live in an old (I believe I was told) 1860's duplex which likely has many chilly stories to tell. Its drafty windows, cracked panes, and dirt tell me this.

While most of the time, I take pride in the quaint, historical touch these windows offer our pad, the past two days have not been one of those times. I've plastic-ed the windows. Piled what blankets I have on my bed. Bundled up in long-sleeved shirtS and hoodie. Still...chilled to the bone.

Yesterday afternoon, though, all bundled on the couch and catching up on my latest novel read, sunlight twinkling through our frozen windows, I was brought back in memory to Calvin College. I rememeber a handful of times in college when temperatures dropped this low. I mostly remember housemates and I hundling together in the the living room - the warmest room in our house - trying, albeit not our hardest efforts, to get Monday's work complete.

There was one other place, though, you could find me on a dry, icy, yet sunny day at Calvin - the foyer of the Science Building - glass windows surrounding me, sunglasses on, and textbook in my lap. On cold days, windows are generally the one thing people stay away from but, at the time this newly-constructed building with sealed seams was an incubator - the sunlight warming the place like the beaches of Florida, the cold banned.

So, needless to say, I wish I could be back there today, either in the living room with friends or the incubator-like foyer of Calvin's lastest build.