Nurturing my inner... other kind of cool

My car told me the temperature today on my way to its tune up: 16.  Yes, 16 degrees!  I shouldn't complain, because we've had a relatively mild winter, but I'm going to anyway.  (Because I'm a woman and we have to talk it out in order to move past it!  It's what we do.)  It was bitter cold this morning!  I even kept on my wool coat and scarf in the waiting room at the dealership for three hours.  Brrr.

"Dear summer... I miss you.  I want you back.  I should have appreciated you more when I had you.  What a fool I was.  As for you, winter, we're breaking up.  I'm over you.  It's clear we're moving in different directions.  (Mine is the one toward flip flops.)  You should go find someone better suited for you, who can love you and your chilly ways.  Like an Eskimo or a polar bear or a downhill skier.  But as for us, we're through.  There is no reconciling now that Christmas is over.  Move along now."

In a vain and desperate attempt to convince myself that warmer days were right around the corner, and not four months out, I popped open a popsicle today.  (While I wrapped myself in three layers of clothing, with thick socks, under a blanket.)

Perhaps hot cocoa and reality would
have been the better way to go.

I figured by the pure power of mental determination, and brute will of the suggestive mind, it would feel like 90 degrees in my condo in no time.  I was even *this close* to cranking up the thermostat to help create the balmy mirage I was aiming for.  (I was desperate, if you recall.  Don't judge.)

There are a few flavors, all with coconut.
I got mango, but there was also pineapple
and guava.

Smooze is a delicious way to give winter the chilly kiss off.  It's available at stores like Target or Whole Foods in the snacks or juices section.  It isn't frozen when you buy it.  You bring your box home and then put as many as you'd like in the freezer.  The next day, they are solid, fruity treats.

Scissors snip the top off easy.

Smooze is a grown up push up pop in a triangular shape.  After the top is sliced open, a little squeeze from the bottom and up we go.  A taste of summer in seconds.  No matter what time of year it really is.

Creamy, coconutty, coolness.

I'm sure it's still below 20 degrees out.  (Despite my flat out denial.)  But perhaps, just for the three minutes it took me to chow down my mango coconut popscicle, I was poolside, basking in the warmth of the big yellow ball in the sky.  Ahhhh.  Paradise.  Well, at least I know one thing: It may be frigid beyond measure right now, but soon enough, we'll all be complaining that it's too stinkin' hot out!  (There's just no pleasing us, is there?)