It was all so familiar, winter. The sights, the sounds -- the crunch of her own booted feet into the snow, the white-and-grays of the streets and the cityscape, the occasional howl of a slicing wind between the buildings -- winter even had its own smell to it, the sensation of cold hitting your nostrils. Breathing felt different than it did in the summer, it really felt like you were living in an entirely different world when the seasons changed. This was the eighteenth winter Janice had experienced, probably the fifteenth one she had many clear memories of.

It had been a long time since she had last made a snowman. And even then it had seemingly always been at her parents' urging, trying to get her to play outside and enjoy herself when she had her own ideas on how to have fun. Going out and getting every nook and cranny her clothes possessed filled with snow was rarely one of them. Or at the very least, tumbling around making snow angels and other sorts of fake snowpeople never had that much of an appeal.

Janice was always more fond of sledding.

The various pictures of her hidden away in various embarassing photo albums wouldn't tip many people off on that: she always looked pretty serious, or at least like she was trying her hardest to not look like she was having any fun. But the fact that there were just so many pictures of her at varying ages with a sled, on a sled or somewhere near a sled made it apparent that this was, at least, something that she spent a lot of time doing during the holiday breaks. And kids usually didn't go out of their way to do something they didn't enjoy, let alone so often or without any provocation.

There were a couple of toboggans on sale, on display in a store window that Janice passed by as she sauntered down the street. She gave them a passing glance and thought about them for a couple of moments, but abandoned thoughts and store alike quickly after that. That was money she couldn't be spending on something like that. She was getting too old for that sort of thing, anyway -- she had too many responsibilities and not enough time.

Which was a shame, really... considering the weather was perfect for it. But that was a notion nobody would be hearing anytime soon, since it wasn't one she was even supposed to be having.

She stopped at her usual coffee shop, ordered her usual drink, sat at her usual table and got out her notebook to attend to her usual schoolwork. For a couple hours she sat in her little island amidst a sea of books and notes, tapping away at her keyboard -- no getting distracted by Youtube or Facebook for her, and thanks to her determination to never touch either of those websites she was already in the editing-and-revising phase when a lot of people would still be trying to fill out their second or third page. Three more cups of coffee later she had her citation page filled out, a dryly-humorous title edited in, and all other thoughts abandoned but those of academic achievement. Janice could already see the "A" written in red ink on the top corner of the first page. All in a day's work, and this time she was sure she had a good understanding of the instructor's frustrating expectations.

A few moments afterwards she was already out of the cafe and on the street again, having methodically packed all her things away at a practiced lightning speed. It had gotten darker out since she'd gone inside, and the streetlights lining the sidewalks had all switched on, illuminating the tinsel wrapped around them and the gentle waves of snowflakes that swirled lazily through the air. Besides herself, there weren't too many people out tonight. Maybe it was just an off night to do much town-prowling in... maybe it was too cold, maybe a lot of people were just afraid to go out after dark these days; she wouldn't fault them for that.

The wind was starting to get a bit much for her liking, and she redoubled her pace so she could get home faster -- but she did stop for a moment, in front of one store.

The taboggans stared back, flaunting their reasonable price tags.

...Maybe some other time.