Out with the Old and In with the Cold!

It's still officially New Year's for me (we're not even one week in!), but it seems as if this New Year's the motto should be "Out with the old and in with the COLD"! Here in Chicago, the Polar Vortex brought the thermometer below zero sometime Sunday night, and it's still down there. (We are promised a trip to "above zero" this afternoon; I can hardly wait!) A few people stopped in our bookstore yesterday to keep warm while they waited for the bus; one of them even bought a book (our one sale of the day!); by 2:30 we locked the door and turned off the lights. Today will probably be a repeat of that, giving the sisters time to catch up on a multitude of tasks. Yesterday I even took advantage of the relaxed pace (and forced enclosure!) to make my first-ever, baked-from-scratch King Cake for the start of King Cake season. (Sister Edward Marie got the baby. Oh, and here's the recipe I used.)

My own plans have had to change, too. Sister Gemma and I were looking forward to this evening's pre-release screening of the movie "Gimme Shelter." The movie is scheduled to open in theaters starting Jan. 24--which happens to be the day I am hosting the "Winds of Change" radio program. It would be ideal to be able to talk about the film sometime during that hour. But the showing is an hour's drive away--on a good day. With the Illinois Department of Transportation showing the highways "covered in snow and ice" all the way out there, I am simply afraid to risk it. So...I'm asking the folk at Carmel Communications if they will send me a "screener." (Here's hoping!)