I went stir crazy on Sunday.  Stir frickin’ crazy.

It’s not like I’m a shut-in, but I’ve had bronchitis since the middle of December and we’ve had pockets of below-zero weather, and the days when it was nice enough to go outside I wasn’t feeling well and vice-versa.  So, while I’ve been out in the physical world, it’s only really been from my car to a building and back again.

On Sunday, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I can’t stand it anymore,” I told Kyle.  “I have to go for a walk.”

“It’s really cold outside,” Kyle said.

“How cold is really cold?”  I asked.

“I think it’s like -9 without the windchill,” he said.

“That’s not cold,” I said.

I can’t remember if I’ve told you this before, but I work in marketing.  I lead a marketing department, in fact.  My late boss told me the best way to be successful is to hire people who are smarter and more talented than you, and that has turned out to be very good advice.  Since I am surrounded by smarter, more talented marketers we have a lot of interesting discussions on societal behaviors (because that’s what some marketing people – namely, me – use to develop strategy).  One of those behaviors which has been a regular point of discussion of late is Trust.

Trust is a fascinating, complicated, inconsistent psychological state.  The most fascinating, complicated and inconsistent part of Trust is that human beings will trust whatever and whomever we want without reason…meaning we will seek out and/or invent facts to fit our beliefs instead of waiting for facts to inform them.  I’m not even going to cite that statement – that humans identify opinions first and then find facts to fit them – because I’m telling you that it’s the truth and you are naturally inclined to believe me.  Also, it’s a much, much studied hypothesis and you can Google it yourself.

Anyways, I’m not going tread into the deep, dark neurological forest of Trust (feel free to email me if you want to discuss), but I can tell you that even with my understanding on behaviors related to Trust I still believe whatever I feel like believing whenever I feel like believing it… and there is no greater proof of this than my inane dogmas on weather.

Weather is important in North Dakota because we have a lot of it.  Every Monday, I drive to Fargo and sit in a television studio waiting for my segment to begin.  One of the well-educated staff meteorologists sits at a desk directly off of the studio, and I’ve spent cumulative hours watching her study graphs and charts and science-y things to best predict weather patterns.  After my segment, I’ll drive back home to Grand Forks and call my husband and say things like, “I just saw three deer in a field; storm’s-a-comin’,” because science be damned, I git my weather from whatever old farmer’s tale flits my way.

Here is one of my recently acquired weather “facts:”

It was foggy almost the entire time we were in Canada for Christmas.

“You know what they say,” my father-in-law, a farmer, said.  “Fog in the winter means it’s 90 days to rain.”

“I did not know that,” I said, “but now I expect it to be warm in March.”

“We’re in an El Nino, though,” my father-in-law said.  “You should probably expect snow and cold for a bit longer.”

“Nope,” I said.  “Warm in March.”

As a long-ish married couple, my husband and I both inherently trust and distrust everything the other one says.  So, when Kyle told me it was cold outside on Sunday, I didn’t feel the need to fact-check him by looking at the actual weather temperature, but I also didn’t 100% trust him because it is my belief that weather temperature is whatever you want it to be.

“That is really dumb, Amanda; weather is a fact,” you may be thinking, and you’d be right.

Here’s my “proof:” my sister used to live in California and would wear a down jacket in 60-degree weather.  Sixty degrees (or even 30 degrees) is shorts weather in North Dakota if it’s the first days of spring, but it’s also jacket weather if it’s the start of fall and we’re used to 85-degree temps.  While hypothermia and frostbite are both irrefutable byproducts of low temperatures, the metabolic rate and brown fat of people who are exposed to cold weather are different than those who aren’t, meaning my rate of hypothermia may be different than a resident of Arizona in the same temperature.

“That is still really dumb,” you probably continue to think.  “Remind yourself that you work in marketing, not science.”  Like I said, trust is illogical.

Okay, back to Sunday.

“How far can I get if I wear snowpants?”  I asked Kyle.  He thought for a moment.

“If you wear snowpants AND cover your face,” he said, “you can go about a mile.”

“Fine,” I said.

I’ve been wearing long underwear as clothing lately like one of those fellers who sit around in log cabins with a corncob pipe and a wood-burning stove.  I put on a pair of sweats, a sweatshirt, and boot socks over my long underwear, pulled on my mukluks and pink snowpants, loaded up my warmest jacket, wrapped up in a scarf and beanie, and pulled up my hood.

“I’m already sweating,” I told Kyle.

“You won’t be sweating when you get outside,” Kyle said, pulling on his own winter gear so that his pain in the butt wife wouldn’t later need a search party.

The air was crisp and fresh and cold and lovely, and I immediately felt right as rain – or snow, I guess – once we got outside.  I did not, however, cool down.  We ended up walking over two miles, finally having to go back because the heat from my body was frosting up everything from my eyelashes to my shoelaces.

“I told you it wasn’t cold outside,” I said, peeling myself out of my sweaty clothes.

“Well, I was cold,” Kyle said.

“I guess you and I live different weather truths,” I said, fanning myself with my hat.

“I guess so,” Kyle said, sitting down by the fireplace.

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Kyle took the photo above of me on our walk.

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I wasn’t on North Dakota Today this week because Sophia was off competing at Miss America!  Three weeks ago on North Dakota Today we talked about Nate Bertram, my Nice Person of the Week, as well as two girls hockey teams coming together to blanket the community in holiday cheer.  Remember to nominate the great people in your lives to be a Nice Person of the Week! (Valley News Live)

This is Sports Illustrated’s headline this week: “North Dakota State’s Dynasty is the Greatest in Sports.” (SI)

Thanks to 1,400 donors, Moorhead’s Pastor Devlyn was able to keep the literal lights on at Churches United for the Homeless. (Fargo Forum; Found from “Oops Only Good News”)

Mott is in the record books thanks to a really big fireworks spectacular. (Fargo Forum)

Reading?  Good.  Wine?  Good.  Reading, wine, and supporting the Fargo Public Library?  Great. (KVRR)

After their broadcast equipment was stolen (NOT ND Nice), the Bismarck VFW stepped in with $13,000 to help PSP Network get back on the air. (965 the Walleye)

Minot’s Kim Sutton has been honored for helping an elementary student get speedy help for a broken wrist. (Minot Daily News)

It’s only January 8th, but the Ronald Regan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site has already had visitors from California and Brazil. (Facebook)

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