So, what do you do at a football game when the rain comes down in a slow, steady slide, the wind rushes under your umbrella with skin freezing force and water has seeped through your shoes and socks to numb your toes?
Hunker down and pay attention.
Last night, I used the hours long, miserable experience to memorize exactly how I felt since the WIP opens in those exact conditions. I took note of how awful wet jeans feel against the skin. They chafe, but they also rest heavy and unweildy against the skin. I used first one hand, then the other to hold the umbrella and stuck the free hand in a jacket pocket, then the jeans pocket, hoping the latter would still release a bit of body warmth to unfreeze my water-wrinkled fingers. For the record, they took a long time to thaw. No matter where I put them.
Cold ears ache and that ache spreads slowly into the rest of your head. The jaw also starts to throb because if you’re like me, you clench your teeth with stress.
The nose might run and you won’t realize… <g>
All this also helped take my mind off the fact my son was mostly on the sidelines in a short sleeved jersey and short, tight pants. I could see the water dripping off his bare elbows as he stood with arms crossed, still and tough, pretending it didn’t bother him.
But during the last half hour, all I could really think about was hot coffee and the leftover taco soup I planned to heat up when we got home. Oh, and toasting the pumpkin bread I’d made earlier.
The reality, on the food part at least, was so much better than the imagination, btw. 😉
Reminder: I’ll be guest blogging on my critique partner, Rachel Vincent’s, blog this week! Don’t forget to check that out. 😉