These Damn Winter Blues

As most of you know, I live in Wisconsin. It's cold here about five months a year - okay, I get it. I'm not one to complain about the fact that it's cold, or it's snowing, or be one of those. After about four months of that bitter cold, though, something in me just snaps. I don't want to do anything. Don't want to write, don't want to communicate or do much of anything. I just want to get home from work every day, microwave a bunch of pizza rolls, sit on my couch and do absolutely nothing but eat, hang out with my cats, and watch episode after episode of Law and Order: SVU on Netflix.

That isn't bad, though, right? Every once and awhile we all have to let go and just let life pass us by - not that we have to like it. It happens to everybody. Everybody gets bummed out and depressed at one time or another. For me, it is something that comes and goes. Sometimes, I am fairly certain it has everything to do with the weather. If we could all go full-boar all year long, and never have an emotional hiccup or trip up along the way, we would, first off, be much more productive and efficient, but we wouldn't be human.

We got our first 'big' snow of the year last week in Milwaukee, which was around five or six inches. I had to plow snow and spend the rest of the next day downing soda and candy like it was going out of style just to stay awake, but it was different. It wasn't just bitterly cold outside; it was a change of scenery.

Last night, for example, I decided to take a break from eating nothing but pizza rolls for dinner, and go to the bar where I host trivia on Thursdays for their Monday night taco special - $1.75 for beef and $2.25 for chicken tacos. This went hand in hand with their domestic tap beer special, which was all of $1.50 a pint. Their tacos are so good for something so simple! I decided to call up one of my work buddies and for about $6.50, I did something I wouldn't have usually, if not for wanting to do something different. And it felt good!

If I could attempt to have a change of scenery every day, and be better at just being human and accepting these feelings I get every year, I might just make it through these damn winter blues.

Have you ever dealt with these kinds of feelings? What are your surefire ways to combat them?