Cold Feet

( Abel Uribe, Chicago Tribune / December 6, 2011 )

Valerie Vasquez, 19, Chicago college student, San Antonio:

"What were you thinking?" I asked Vasquez, pointing to her flimsy fabric flats with no socks. "I wasn't, I guess," she laughed. "It wasn't snowing when I went to class," she weakly explained as the flurries flew about. It's her second Chicago winter but she still hasn't quite accepted that she's not in Texas any more, acknowledging that her cloth shoes are "more like slippers." The scarf is a nod to winter, but the skimpy fleece she's wearing over a T-shirt isn't exactly right for winter misery.

"My friends call me crazy," she said.