I can’t believe Christmas has already passed. Is this year flying by or what? New Year’s is less than a week away, which means it’s only two weeks until I’m breaking my resolutions.

So, are you happy that winter’s finally arrived, or have you added a “Days to Summer” countdown to your Myspace profile? To determine whether the glass of egg nog is half empty or half full, let’s weigh the pros and cons of winter!

Pro: We get a month off from trekking around campus just when the temperature hits below zero.
Con: The “spring” semester starts in January. Brr!

Pro: Whatever holiday you celebrate, you’re bound to get some free stuff over break.
Con: You’re bound to get some free stuff you don’t want for the holidays, especially from your Grandma, who means well, but hasn’t been in style since the Great Depression.

Pro: Homemade treats, including (but not limited to) pumpkin pie, fudge, Christmas cookies, popcorn balls, and anything with chocolate in it.
Con: The calories that come with those treats.

Pro: You can get away with layering baggy clothes after indulging in the above treats.
Con: Spring break (and bathing suit season) is still just around the corner. Read More »

Remember when you were a little kid, and you’d actually wake up on time for school… just so you could huddle next to the radio and listen for your school to be called on the list of snow days?

With winter’s doom impending and temperatures dropping faster than an eight ball at Amy Winehouse’s flat, we can’t help but cross our fingers and pray… Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Are snow days something you never grow out of? Or, in college, do they prove that miracles really can happen? Here’s how our anticipation of snow days has evolved since grammar school.

Then: A snow day meant a day off from times tables.
Now: We don’t have to finish copying someone else’s MiniTabs before Stats lab.

Then: We would make a beeline to the street and get all the neighborhood kids together for a snowball fight.
Now: We don’t have to brave arctic winds to walk to class and sit through lecture with snot-cicles hanging from our frostbitten faces.

Then: Since we were already up at the crack of dawn, we could take advantage of the snow day and start building a snow man as soon as we got “the word.”
Now: We can go back to sleep for about six hours, and wake up just in time for happy hour. Read More »

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got the winter blues. Between my frozen fingers, my wet toes and the gray skies, I am not sure how much longer I am going to last. I want some sun, dammit! Not that it is coming any time soon; winter has only just begun. We have at least 3 more months of Uggs, gloves and snotcicles dripping down our faces.

How are we supposed to make it through? The CollegeCandy writers give us their best beat-the-winter-blues advice:
Sarah - East Carolina University: I bake cookies. And everything else that is loaded with sugar, or chocolate, or other deliciousness.

Kathryn S.: Booze, booze, booze, and watching holiday movies. While drunk. Read More »

I came to college up north because I insisted on going to a school with all four seasons. I chose Syracuse because I tend to do things in excess. Why have a few days of snow every school year when I can spend 8/9 months at Syracuse freezing and wearing the somehow-still-popular Ugg boot for the majority of the year?

Four years ago I ran outside as the first flakes fell from the sky. I spun around and around with my tongue out reveling in the snow not because it came naturally but because that’s what people always do in the movies. I stayed spinning until a bus pulled up in front of the dorm, almost ran me over, and my friend asked me to come inside and stop embarrassing myself. Even as the winter wore on I got delight out of hearing the crunching snow beneath my feet and writing my name over and over again on ever snowy surface.

But nothing good can ever last and now as the first snow falls, I’m sitting inside wrapped in fourteen layers chugging a large coffee. I made a list of everything in the kitchen and rationed it out so we can survive five months without having to go outside and to the supermarket once. I haven’t been this prepared with food since I won the Oregon Trail in fifth grade.

So I guess the magic of snow has worn off. The first sign was probably when I put a hat on and everything remarked that I looked unmistakeably like a penis. The second sign is when my boots stopped working and I had to wrap plastic bags around my feet so the 3-foot ice puddle wouldn’t give me hypothermia. The third sign was when I made a snowman last year and someone ate the skittle eyes. Ever since then I just can’t look at snow the same way.

So here goes hibernation ‘09. It should be a blast.

There is no nice way to put this: it is f*#king freezing outside. And even though I am trying my hardest not to give into my yearly bout with depression, leaving the house is getting harder and harder to do.

And when I do force myself to venture out into the cruel, cold world – say, to go to work – it takes me a good half hour to warm up when I finally get back home.

I have tried everything in the book to get warm: thick socks, long underwear, hot tea. But none of it works. If you too are suffering with no relief from the bitter cold that settled in this past week, you may also be looking for alternative ways to keep warm this long and dreary winter.

And, trust me on this one, there really is only one way to do it: with the help of booze. Warm booze, that is.

Nothing warms you from the inside out quite like a hot cup of spiked cider. Or some old fashioned hot buttered rum.

Pair them with some gingerbread cookies (you can buy em at the store!) and old episodes of Sex and the City and you have yourself the perfect winter afternoon with the girls.

I get warm just thinking about it!

The recipes could not be easier. So stock up on these ingredients, throw on some wool socks and get ready for a warm and cozy winter.

Spiked Hot Apple Cider:
6 to 8 oz apple cider or juice
1 oz dark rum (2 tablespoons)

Heat the cider until it boils. Pour into a cup, add rum. Garnish with sliced apple or a cinnamon stick. Sip, warm up and enjoy! Read More »