Take a pint of warm water, a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of baking soda. Snort it, one nostril at a time. Blow your nose. Out flows the mucus, at a faster pace then you ever dreamed. You were right to ignore her.
Cold weather has nothing to do with getting a cold.
You are more likely to get a cold in the winter because the humidity drops, not the temperature. When your mucus is moist, it is better able to capture viruses and banish them to the stomach, where they quickly perish in acid. Viruses like dry weather. When the inside of your nose gets dry, they like that even more. If you really want to welcome them, keep up the nicotine habit, which encourages nasal dryness.