Layered up and shivering on my first night back in New Paltz, I hung out with my boys on the snowy back patio at Oasis, smoking cigarettes. The cold winds stung my face as we bitched and joked about stagnant hometown life.

Jim said something along the lines of how his mother didn't like California because it lacked the gritty attitude of the northeast. I agreed and said the south was soft. Then Mikey Frecks broke it down, "They's soft, J-Skins. They's soft! They've never even shoveled snow! I've shoveled some snow. I know you've shoveled some snow." Then he proceeded around our circle announcing that we've all indeed shoveled some snow and therefore we're tougher than those pansy southerners.

As drunk as he was and as trite as his hypothesis may be, he was on point. People up north are harder, and a lot of that is due to the ridiculously cold weather that is endured year after year. It directly impacts the lifestyle. Everyone trudges on regardless of plummeting temperatures and continuous snow dumping upon the entire region. But people in Austin freak out when the temperature dips under 40 degrees. I know it's Texas and all, but it's also January. I think a cold blast is a pleasant reminder that it is actually winter. And it's not like Austin is a walking city.

I think the hardness is what I like and miss most about the northeast. I like the sass and banter. I think the discomfort of winter (the hibernation, the chapped skin, the snow shoveling) provide that rugged attitude and give depth to the human psyche. Perhaps I'm romanticizing, but I think Mikey had a point. Plus, I like feeling tough.

the bulging biceps belonging to the boys behind Antilogy