Check Please!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love a coat check? I never knew I loved a coat check until we moved to the "god forsaken north (GFN)." In fact, I am not even sure I had ever even seen or used a coat check until we moved to the GFN...at least not with any regularity. Growing up most of my formative childhood years in the Deep South pretty much limits your availability of coat checks. Now they are everywhere. Pretty handy at all those socialite type parties we go to...all the time...you know...twice a year at the holidays. Anyway, it is such a pain to have to hold your coat (cuz you CANNOT go anywhere here without one...not even to the driveway to get something out of your car. Did I mention the low tonight is supposed to be 2? that would be Fahrenheit degrees. Tomorrow the high is 13 and a wind chill of -10 below 0. UGH) Anyway, I digress...coat checks...I was saying it is a struggle to hold your coat at a function, and your plate of food, and your cocktail. Coat checks come in really handy. The best thing about coat checks here in the GFN is they are EVERYWHERE. All the places you would go. We went to the butterfly house in January and they had a coat check. It was awesome! It is so nice to not have to lug your coat, your kids coats, your purse, your diaper bag, the crap your kids HAVE to bring and then don't want to hold anymore and so on and so forth. Just shove it in this special room and hope it is there when you get back (they are not always manned by the coat check girl...different than on TV and movies where there is always a coat check girl.)

Anyway, I was just thinking the other day about how cold it is and how much I hate the cold and how hard it is to get out the door with coats and hats and gloves and such. I was struggling to come up with a reason to not leave Husband #1 behind for the next two months and jet off with the kids to some tropical locale (you know other than school and the fact we would miss him). All I could come up with was coat checks. Guess I should be grateful there is that one little refuge in my four month interlude of bleak, freezing dreariness in the GFN. Anyone else want to share what keeps them plugging along in the cold? I could use some more incentive.