When traveling I’m usually very interested in what I visit, I haven’t traveled much at all for business so the places I see I know about and want to experience and learn more about. That being said, a good trick I learned a while ago is the scenery suck. When you”re running everywhere, seeing lots of things, sometimes crushed between other tourists. Stop, take a deep breath and take stock of where you are and what you’re experiencing. It’s fun, often helps you appreciate what you are seeing and sometimes constitutes the minute you’ll remember later on.
This morning I came up with something “similar”, the weather suck. When it’s f*cking cold like today. Stop. And through your crying eyes, through the iced up glasses, between the tuque and the top of the scarf; look around, see the naked trees, the dirty snow, the ice, the smoking cars, the people with layers and layers of clothes. Feel your nose going numb, the tears turning to ice on your cheeks, the little needles of cold pinching your knees, your nostrils sticking together, how you’re trying to bunch up, turn in your shoulders and protect from the cold. Hold that moment.
Then this summer, when you’re sitting at a terrasse somewhere, enjoying a cold beer or iced tea, watching scantily clad montrealers walking by, remember that moment and smile. The Weather Suck Summer Smile (pronounce Wuss) is the goal that will get me through this winter.