Ice Storm

                                  by Mira Nitzberg

Chapter 1

     When I woke up this morning there was a chill in the air and the familiar scent of pine in my bedroom.  I hadn't yet opened my eyes, I wanted to revel in the sleep that I had just woken from.  I love sleeping, it's so peaceful.  I had woken up with a feeling of lightness, maybe I had been dreaming of flying, who knows?  I ran my hands up my body and did a little stretch, like a cat I've been told.
     When I finally opened my eyes I saw that I had left my window open last night, wide open.  My landlord keeps the heat up so high in the evening that even on the coldest of winter days I have to leave my window up just to get some air.  When I know it's going to rain I only leave it open a crack, but I didn't know it was supposed to rain last night.  As I looked around my room I saw a puddle on the floor.  I walked towards the window to shut it and slipped on the puddle.  It was ice!  No wonder I was so cold.  The rain had actually turned to ice inside my room!  I wished I was still dreaming.
     I put a towel on top of the ice pond in my room and started to get ready for work.  I hoped that as the room got warmer during the day the ice would melt and the towel would absorb it.  I didn't have time to play around with ice in my room.
     I got my pajamas off and was now walking around my very cold room, naked.  I recently lost 20lbs and was obscenely obsessed with my body.  I had never been able to see my abs before, and I was taking every chance I could to show them off, even to myself.  I knew I was silly, but I was so proud that I didn't care.  After my weight loss I fixed the rest of myself up also.  I started dying my hair, I got my teeth whitened, I was getting manicures, pedicures, and waxing.... everywhere.  My boyfriend thought I was going overboard with my whole makeover thing, but what did he know?  He was naturally gorgeous.
     I walked over to the shower and made sure to keep the temperature rather low.  Warm enough so that I wasn't freezing, cold enough so that when I stepped out of the shower the cold air didn't make me even colder.  If the water temperature and the air temperature were about the same I wouldn't be too cold.  It's my theory anyway.
     After my shower I did my hair and make up.  Before my new body (BeforeNewBody) this took me about ten minutes.  I just brushed my hair and let it air dry, I put it up if I was cold.  Now I style my hair.  It's so strange to me that a little care and attention can really make a difference.  I'm not going to describe what I do to my hair, it's a secret, my own special recipe.  Maybe I'll market it one day.  After my hair was dry and ready (like the dreidel), I started in on my makeup.  Since I was going to work I still went light on the makeup.  While before "light" had been a little bit of lipgloss, lipstick if I was feeling feisty. now light meant that I was wearing foundation, blush, eyeshadow, and lipstick.  The whole shebang.  I just used natural colors.  The act of getting ready for work now took twice as long.  I had to wake up earlier for this which was a concession that BNB would never have made.  BNB loved sleeping, New Body still does, but NB finds looking good just as important.  I never thought I would be one of those people who would refer to herself in the third person.  Wow.
     By the time I was done with my makeup I had already picked the outfit I was going to wear for the day, in my head.  Self visualization is a very important part of being able to lose weight.  If you can see yourself as thin and beautiful, maybe with great clothes, it will happen.  It will!  As I walked past the towel on the floor I noticed that it was all wet.  I didn't have time to pick it up right then though.
     I stepped out of my house... and slid down the walkway.  I fell right on my ass.  My pants were just as wet as that towel in my room.  There was a sheet of ice covering everything and it was still raining.  I had to walk to the bus so slowly that I thought I was never going to get there.  I had never seen absolutely everything dripping with icicles before, it was beautiful, in a freaky winter ice storm kind of way.  If I had been a polar bear I would have been in heaven.
     As you might imagine, the buses were running late.  I stood there waiting, just waiting for a half hour as the frozen rain pounded down on my umbrella.  I thought that if I stood still long enough I might get a sheet of ice on my umbrella.  I had this idea that I would be able to remove the ice from the umbrella whole and be able to preserve the shape.  It just sounded so beautiful that I got mesmerized by the idea and was so busy standing still that I didn't see the bus slowly approaching.  I got completely soaked by the bus.  There was so much water on the ground that it didn't matter how slowly the bus was going.  I was standing too close to the edge of the sidewalk trying to create my ice umbrella.
     So much for that idea.  If I hadn't gotten soaked it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.  I would have frozen before the water on the umbrella.  By the time I got to work my makeup was ruined and I was so cold that my fingertips were turning blue.  Luckily, I had extra clothes at work so that I could at least get warm.  Unfortunately, my extra work clothes no longer fit me.  I hadn't replaced the clothes in my locker since before I started losing weight.  This wasn't promising to be a good day.