Rating our moods and matching them with a description of the weather was somewhat of an afterthought when Hannah and I started Ditch the Umbrella. We began with a looser formulation of what we wanted this blog to be about, and that mainly relied on self-reflection. But as we’ve written before, it can be difficult to balance insightful stories, impressions, memories, and emotions, and personal privacy. We have no desire to become constant over-sharers.
The mood rating has done a funny thing over time. First, we found ourselves seemingly-endlessly happy. Then we realized our scale must have been slightly off because we rarely judged ourselves to be middling 5’s. We made a course correction and started looking at general patterns.
Ever since it’s become cold and snowy, our moods have dropped. I’ve shed about two points from my summer/fall ratings, and Hannah’s have also decreased slightly. What had originally been an afterthought has actually provided us with a (slightly) more objective view of ourselves over time. And while last winter I didn’t take note of any mood drops, I also wasn’t on the lookout for them.
For me, summer is a time of freedom and exploration, sand dunes and salt water, and friends and weekends in seaside towns. In summer, it’s not at all uncommon for me to walk more than 5 miles, exploring the city and meeting with people. In the winter, I’m much more likely to stay in, watch a movie, and hibernate. Last winter, though, I explored the joys of the season, discovered cross country skiing, and rekindled my love for figure skating.
Somehow, though, I haven’t managed to get to the Weston Ski Track yet this year, and I’ve only skated once. We’ve been hit by storm after storm and I seem to go to meeting after meeting. By the time the weekend arrives, I’m ready to relax, not explore. That adventuresome part of my personality seems to retreat.
Now that I better understand these nuances, I am going to:
- Join a gym and/or generally increase physical fitness. (Endorphins, yay!)
- Schedule at least one weekend day in advance.
- Leave one weekend day less structured. Sleep. Read. Relax. Undertake spontaneous adventures.
- Play jazz. Loudly.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables (even though winter tomatoes regularly disappoint).
- Go cross country skiing!
I welcome other suggestions.
Note: I may have to add trampoline dodgeball to my list.
Weather: Sunny, blue skies. 34 degrees.
Moods:
Anna – 7 out of 10 on the “so miserable I can’t get out of bed” to “jumping for joy” scale. Lots of coffee!!
Hannah – 5 out of 10. Tired.
Ditch the Umbrella 
This may sound strange, but here in Delhi, we tend to get really depressed over the summer. It’s not the lack of sunshine or anything logical like that, it’s simply that the temperatures are so high that you can’t leave your house until 6 p.m. (The temperature in May and June could easily go up to as much as 120 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Couple that with the fact that you have to cover up in most parts of the city (jeans in summer, ugh!) and misery just about begins to describe it.
The evenings are nice, though. Not cool, but bearable, I suppose.
That makes perfect sense. It’s stifling to be cooped up inside. And it’s equally frustrating whether the cause is extreme heat or constant snow and ice!
At least here we can add layers to combat the cold…