Snowmageddon!! Or is it Snowpocalypse??

Since my last post, I have a new perception on snowfall totals. I drove home from the White House a couple of Saturdays ago in about 8 inches. Boy, ten days later, that's NOTHING!

So in the last seven days, I have seen more snow than I've ever seen in my lifetime and have had a whole new set of adventures. I realize that nothing will ever compete to the randomness of the HoJo's (I think I'm repeating myself now!) but now I feel like I've experienced being snowed in in pretty much every scenario. I spent two days in a seedy (Sorry, Habeeb the innkeeper) and then for a few hours at the White House. And pretty much everything in between.

Last Friday, the snow started falling and the thought of me getting stuck at work was sooo unappealing so I took the day off and watched it snow (and not stick) for hour after hour. I was kind of excited about having a relaxing afternoon watching the classics like Dr. Phil and Oprah. However, all of our local news was in live programming all afternoon just repeating the same thing over and over again. "It's going to snow. It's going to be massive. It's going to be a lot of snow. Please don't drive." Really? It was obvious with a two second glance at the radar map. All I wanted to see was Oprah! My network does the same thing but it's supposed to do that. The local affiliates and networks don't have to. I might be oversimplifying things but I'm in the news business so I can make fun.

Anyway, I had thought about what it would be like to be snowed in at home and I definitely went into planning mode. I decided I didn't want to sit in front of the TV or play hours and hours of spider solitaire for three days, only budging to put oatmeal chocolate cookies in the oven and take them out. (I don't judge though if this was you. Normally it would be me but I wanted to switch things up!) So I braved the grocery store on Friday morning which was quite the scene. Due to my new-found love of cooking, I had a couple of recipes of things I wanted to make and went armed to the grocery store. Luckily I didn't need anything like bread, milk, and toilet paper. Actually I was previously pretty well stocked (thanks to the productive trip to the grocery store the week before when my cooking skills were launched.) But I had a few ingredients that I didn't think I had. (It turns out that I bought the very last box of Bisquick in the entire store and wouldn't you know, when I got home, I already had an unopened box that wasn't even expired! Who knew?!?) Anyway, I didn't have a traumatic trip to the grocery store other than having to practically run over stupid people in the parking lot! :) But it certainly looked like people were never planning on leaving their houses again. On the local news (that I watched waaay too much of) they reported that bananas and mushrooms were out in most stores. Huh? I didn't have a need for either!

Anyway, I got back home and hunkered down for the snow. You've seen it all on the news but basically by Saturday morning, we had about 15 inches and it snowed all day long until we had about 27 or so inches. I had come up with various indoor activities so that I wouldn't get bored. I played the piano. I finished a couple of books. I talked on the phone. I had bought a 1000 piece puzzle. I figured that would keep me pretty well entertained. Oh,and I had a few recipes I wanted to make. How's that for being productive I didn't even watch too much TV! Seriously, I almost felt too busy to be snowed in!

I started early in the day with making an apple crisp. I had had this when I was in Baku and I thought if my friends' teenage sons could make it with a very limited grocery store, then I had no excuses! But let me tell you. It was a commitment! Keep in mind that I just started cooking 10 days prior to the storm. I didn't know for sure if I owned a peeler. It turns out that some former roommate along the way left it in my possession and I can assure you it hadn't been used! After spending quality time peeling the apples (which I finally got into the groove for the LAST apple!), I decided I was already exhausted but then I was also committed to finishing what I started! Long story short, I made it and even took it over to my friends' Barbara and David's house for dinner!! It was a hit!!

Barbara and I have been friends for years, having met when we went to the same church years ago. She's one of the coolest Wahoo's I know! :) She and David live in my neighborhood, yet we rarely ever see each other. I was so excited when she invited me (and one of their other neighbors) over to their house for dinner. I'm an extrovert living as an introvert so the opportunity to interact with others was just sooo exciting!! Once I got off my patio in the snow that was at least mid-thigh, I walked over to their house. We had so much fun having dinner and dessert (I admit I was slightly intimidated!) and playing Wii! And I was only a few steps away from my house! We decided that we were going to hang out even when there's no snow!

Sunday, church was cancelled and I continued to have a relaxing day. Well sort of. Again, I almost felt like I had so many "activities" that I wasn't really relaxing very much! But I had to add "digging my car" to that list and so relaxing was going to have to wait. Oh, I failed to mention a huge thing. I do not own a snow shovel. I was going to borrow one from my friends Joe and Katie but I didn't take them up on the offer for the last snow and now it was too late. All I had was my kitchen broom and dustpan. I managed to shovel a pathway from my door to the sidewalk but let me just say. It was waaaay too intimidating to tackle digging out my car with a dustpan. With the amount of snow, I would have been there until April. I found an unused shovel on a patio a few doors down and offered to rent it from them. They took pity on me, said good luck and let me use it for free. I know the guy looked at me and laughed because he knew it would take me a long, long time. And he was right. After an hour or so, I had only gotten halfway through the four foot wall of snow in front of my car. I'm pretty sure I was lifting snow that was two or three times my weight. I immediately knew that I wouldn't be able to move the next day!! Finally a guy who lived nearby offered to help me and suddenly I sensed that I might actually get to move my car one day soon! He was amazing!! All the snow from the car next to mine had fallen on my driver's side door. It was literally over my head! But before we knew it, I was able to see my car!! I celebrated my feat with going to a Super Bowl party at another new friend's house in my neighborhood! A whole lot of fun and I didn't have to drive anywhere!

Monday, I worked from home which I had never done before. I was even somewhat productive! Due to the fact that I felt like a 90 year old woman and had trouble moving my arms above my head, I finally did the relaxing thing! And I worked every so often. :) I also ate chili (the first time I had made it!) and had as much of a snow day as possible. Tuesday came with calls for another foot of snow. This time my office decided I was a "critical" role of the newsmaking operation and put me up in a hotel near work. So I gave up that beautiful parking place that I spent hours digging out of (with the help of Ryan) and hunkered down in a relatively plush hotel room. It was almost like coming full circle since the first storm of the season I was stuck in HoJo's. This was just a little bit nicer, with more expensive food choices, but no new BFF who took me to Walmart and the Country Cookin! A bunch of my colleagues were there and it was actually fun, in that summer-camp kind of way.

I do look forward to sleeping in my own bed, not spending $26 on breakfast, and relaxing this weekend. Even more, I look forward to when there isn't snow in the forecast and we might hit forty degrees!!