We all love going to parties at the beginning of the year when the temperature’s nice and you can still wear those cute sundresses you bought over the summer. But everything changes when the weather gets a little colder, and unfortunately, that time of year is back again. Here’s a quick refresher on some of the hardships you’ll endure when you go out in those chillier months. Let’s get through them together.
1. Getting out from under the covers
It’s pretty much a given that when it gets cold, you spend most of your free time hiding under mountains of blankets and pretending you have no responsibilities. So when the weekend comes, you’ll usually have a hard time dragging yourself out of your cozy cocoon and into an outfit that’s guaranteed to make you chilly. Your roommate will beg and beg for you to come out with her, but it’ll still take at least twenty minutes to drag you out from under your blankets.
2. Choosing a Frat Jacket
Once you decide to go out, you’ll need to choose a jacket to take with you. You won’t want to wear something hideous, so you’ll pick out a coat that you actually like. You’ll end up feeling really guilty about soaking it in jungle juice and cheap beer, but that’s just how it goes. Such a tragic love story.
3. Drinking yourself a liquor jacket
Should you decide that you’re immune to the weather, you’ll just forgo your frat jacket completely. This is a bit of a problem, however, because you’ll be ridiculously cold once you step outside. You’ll probably turn to alcohol to warm you up, and take a few extra shots at your pregame. This may give you a massive hangover in the morning, but hey, at least you won’t get frostbite!
4. Slipping on the ice
Once you’re finally done getting ready, you’ll just need to get to the party and have fun! It sounds pretty easy in theory, but this traveling part of your night is actually quite a dilemma. You’re clumsy in general (be honest), you’re drunk, and there’s a literal slip and slide of black ice on all the sidewalks. It’s a recipe for disaster, and you’ll be grateful if you don’t arrive at the party with a huge bump on your head from wiping out.
5. Waiting outside of the frats
Miraculously, you won’t die on the ice outside, and now you’ll just need to get into the party to begin your night. In warmer weather, mingling outside the frats was actually kind of fun. You got to quickly meet new people or catch up with familiar faces, then announced that you “knew a brother” at the front of the line and made it inside. Now that it’s cold, however, this part of your night will be unpleasant to say the least. It’s a little less fun standing outside waiting for people to let you in when you and your friends are huddled together like penguins, breathing on your hands for warmth.
6. Not losing your coats
Assuming you have actually picked an extra layer that you can have a balanced love-hate relationship with, your challenge is to not lose it. There are a few ways your drunken self will make this happen. First, you might stash it somewhere weird (i.e. hanging it from pipes in AD or under ceiling tiles in the bathroom). If you try this secret jacket-hiding technique, you’ll just pray that nobody else tries to snatch it. Your second option is to tie your jacket around your waist, thus making it impossible for anyone to grind on you without being a little bit confused.
7. Keeping your hair looking decent
Inside the frats, it’s always pretty much guaranteed that anything you did to make your hair look nice will completely disappear. Usually you’ll get a little frizzy, maybe a little sweaty, and your whole look will go totally downhill. When it’s snowing, however, your hair troubles will be so much worse. You’ll end up with wet hair before you even make it inside the party, and as an added bonus, it’ll turn into tiny icicles when you leave later. So festive!
8. Vowing to stay in next weekend
You’ll end up having a great time at the party and be really glad you decided to come out. Nothing could go wrong at this point, right? Wrong again, because you’ll need to brave the cold to get home. After either trudging all the way back to your dorm or waiting for the drunk bus to chauffeur you to your door, you’ll stumble over the mess of clothes you left on the floor while you were getting ready, and crawl right under the covers. You’ll promise to yourself that this was the last time you party in cold weather, but come next weekend, you’ll forget about this vow entirely and do it all again.