When was the last time you wore 9 shirts at once?

In the last post I mentioned that the weather has really warmed up over the past few weeks, which has been a humongous blessing. It’s really hard to describe the effect the temperature had on my life here. It was all pervasive and every present. I was cold a majority of the winter and therefore wore an obscene amount of clothing. (Disclaimer: I think it’s safe to bet that I wore more articles of clothing at one time than my western friends living in Hunan. I think they would say that I took layering to an extreme. While it is mildly embarrassing, I’m not going to apologize for trying to be as warm as possible.)

In order for you to get a better idea of the volume of clothes I’m talking about, I created the following visual image for you.

The pile on the left contains items that I wore to bed on one night during the deepest of winter. The pile includes: 2 sweatshirts, 3 long-underwear shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts, 1 cami, 1 tee-shirt, 2 pairs of long-underwear pants, 2 pairs of pajama pants (though one only served as a way to keep the other from sticking to the sheets and was not meant for warmth), and 3 pairs of socks. The other item in the pile is my hot water bag. This cloth and rubber bag contains some sort of gel that remains hot after it is warmed by plugging it into an electrical outlet for ten minutes or so. I would warm it up and throw it under the covers before I got into bed to pre-heat the bed.

The pile on the right contains items I wear to bed now and is much easier to explain. It includes a tee-shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

Needless to say I’m happy to say that the weather has warmed up and I no longer feel the need to look like a marshmallow. Thank God for the spring!