January 23, 2013

Winter Clothes are Like Onions (and Ogres)

I seriously can't remember the last time it was this cold here in central PA. And now that I have a 15 min walk in addition to my drive to campus, I was not messing around yesterday.

1) Hat: I never wear hats. Can't pull em off. Wind chill factor of -11º means making the sacrifice.
2) Extra long wool scarf: I saw this scarf at the Gap years ago and fell in love with it. at what-ever-expensive-price-it-was I almost didn't get it. Until I found it on sale. It's long enough to wrap around my neck and then tie. Most days it's overkill. Yesterday it was wonderful.
3) Thigh length down coat: Purchased for similar coldness that I suffered through when my work day started at 2am. Thanks go to the Gap for putting this on sale in December that year and making it in "tall" meaning the sleeves go all the way to my wrists!
4) Faux fur lined suede gloves: I had to go for the hard core gloved yesterday but the wind still cut right through them. May try two pairs today.
5, 6) Tanktop and sweater: Nothing less on a day like yesterday, wool sweater and a tank top for insulation/itch reduction
7, 8, 9) Tights, thermal pants, jeans: Yup. the tights are thick and opaque too. Wind still cut right through them. I wish leather pants weren't horrible because they are wind resistant.
10) Fuzzy socks: Not thick enough and only went up my ankle making them only an okay choice.
11) Sneakers: My biggest regret. The top has mesh for ventilation. All my boots have heels which makes toes hurt in the cold. Maybe I'll wear my waitress shoes which are (p)leather and have no mesh. They are ugly though.

I was preparing for something like this:
(on all of youtube, this version was all I could find)


The end result: I was comfortably warm in the middle part of my body. My face was cold, my legs feet and hands were cold, and I hated wearing a hat. I may forgo that part of the ensemble in the future.


5 comments :

  1. its awful. Its the coldest its been in New York in 3 years...im pretty sure I wore shorts last week........

    I was no prepared lol

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  2. Wow, that's a lot of clothing! Even though I've been here five years, I still can't believe that our daytime winter temperatures are only about 10°C cooler than in summer. I'm used to rugging up.

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  3. I usually wear thermal pants under my jeans when the temperature drops to 20 or below but when it's 8 below, I feel like I need to wear two thermals. Which is what I'm going to do tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to zip up my jeans.

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  4. I live in Mass so I feel your pain.

    This picture looks like you were hanging out in your bed and just disappeared but left your clothes!

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  5. @Kat: I'm not 100% sure what that means but I wish there wasn't 80ºF temperature differences here.

    @Liz: I would be wearing two paris of thermals but they wouldn't fit. If only I didn't get rid of that last pair of one-size-too-big jeans I had for so long.

    @Ginny: Haha I kind of thought that when I was laying it out. I felt it was better than individual photos of each.

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