Freewrite

 I am not ready for winter. I hate being cold. These past few days of chilly weather have been about all I can stand. I just don't like the feeling of being cold. Everything is more painful when you're cold for some reason. I don't understand why, but even the smallest things like stubbing your toe are terrible when you are cold. It is especially unpleasant to play softball when it's cold out. If it gets too cold, you're not supposed to use composite bats because the inside of them can be damaged, and those are some expensive bats, so breaking them is very unfortunate. During cold travel ball tournaments you can often see players with bats underneath their shirts trying to keep their expensive bats warm with body heat, and there are often bats wrapped in blankets while teams play defense. Cold is just not fun. Winter precipitation is the worst. Snow is pretty to look at, but it makes things dangerous and wet and it interferes with everyone's plans. I don't like it when school is cancelled because of snow. A couple snow days a year are nice, just a day off here and there, but the days and days and sometimes weeks off at a time are awful. It's never just one snow day. It seems like it's always four or five days in a row, then a week later another four or five days. It just adds up and I get super bored sitting at home for that long. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I particularly enjoy school, but it's not that bad and on snow days you don't have any other plans and there's only so much you can do at home. You can't really go anywhere, at least for the first few days, because the roads are bad, so you just sit at home and go insane trying not to freeze. I just am not a winter person I guess. I'm made for summer. Summer is travel softball, and swimming, and no school but plenty of things to do and places to go because it's warm and nice and the roads aren't covered in ice. There are places to go, and you can get away from the people you don't like at school. You can still see the ones you like if you want, but the rest you don't come in contact with for almost three months. I have time to read in the summer, and time to watch Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and all those other great things I don't have time for during school. Plus, my birthday is May 23, which is usually right after school gets out, so it's a great kickoff to summer break. I love summer. I just love it. Everything is colorful and alive in the summer, especially when it's not a dry summer. The sky is blue, the plants are green, and everything is vibrantly colored and alive. I love it, and I miss it. It's only October 4 and I'm already pretty much done with winter. I can't stand cold. The good news is, this week it is supposed to get back up in the 70's and low 80's, which is perfect for me.  I can't wait to be warm again. I mean outside. I'm good inside, although my house is a little chilly at the moment. My mom just turned on the heat today for the first time. I don't understand how all these people say they love the cold. I guess fall is pretty, but I hate cold. I also don't like coffee so I'm not excited about the whole "pumpkin spice latte" thing either. Oh well.
-Ellie Lane