Reflection in the Snow.

Hmmm, can you tell I'm snowed in? Time is of the essence when you're in school after school so I have to go with it today...

For snowpocalypse 1 (12/19/2009, in case you aren't from around here...tagline: PANIC!!!), I reluctantly appeased my season-worn worrier of a mother and came to Delaware early, missing the snow in DC, much to my chagrin. I enjoyed a nostalgic snowy weekend with my family (only now that I'm in nursing school I was slightly more uptight watching my Dad and trying to making sure he didn't over exert himself with the shovel and give himself a coronary spasm... but thats an aside. They are in that age group you know....). Anyway, we got our big snow storm to relive our childhood and give us a blizzard to talk about for the decade (the 2000s were decidedly lacking in the snow department...). Despite missing the action in DC (did you hear about the U-Street snowball fight?), I was contented with this winter's precipitation. Imagine my excitement when, upon my return from South Africa week two in January, I find out I've missed a storm, only to have another little one come our way on the weekend. Perfect handful of inches and it gave me an excuse to hole up and get some work done (and really there was no plowing). Then, on the following Wednesday we get another couple inches. Season complete? No, there is more, and Snowpocalypse 2* was born, forecast and arrived. My excitement was palpable (and not just because I am reading about complex cardiac care...) but these storms are almost better than travel because they bring the new, exciting experience to you.... and, like travel, what an interesting cultural analysis this has turned out to be.

[* I prefer the name snowpocalypse. We can't use all the good names in one year... and Snowmaggedon just shouldn't happen yet. Sorry 'bout it, I can't call it snowmaggedon.]

Inevitably, people were mad ("It's going to ruin my weekend plans!" "I HATE SNOW" "Dear Snow, I love you, but my life was planned and it didn't include you"), people were excited ("More snowww!"), and people were just sick of being inside and wondering about the backlash of missed things. One thing that amazes me is that truly, everything is negotiable. We work around "set-in-stone" deadlines, but snow, with all its magic, shows us everything is flexible. In some ways, I guess, it turns stone into water?

We've always joked how panic sets in around DC at the site of a raindrop let alone a snowflake, but this is unlike anything else I've seen. Let's throw all common sense to the wind in a city that threw all their resources to the first storm of the decade (a few weeks ago) and see what happens. SNOWPOCALYPSE: THE SEQUEL.

I have a cute little volvo s60 with 4 wheel drive. My beloved J.Lo (she has some junk in the trunk...) is the closest thing I have to a pet so it was decided ahead of time (by me) that she would not be going out, so I prepared to spend the majority of the weekend indoors. Over the 3.5 feet of drifted snow on our balcony I watched pickups with plows on the front get stuck and have to pull each other out -- leap frogging down the road because inevitably the tow-er would become the tow-ee. I watched a near 4 car crash (in my parking lot!) as they slewed through our street -- at the amazing speeds of 2 miles per hour, each overly confident and completely impatient to get to their destination, getting exasperated at the "asshole" in front of them. There is most definitely a formula for good snow driving, it combines experience, confidence (but not arrogance), respect for the road (and the snow), and sense.... apparently a rare combination in your run-of-the-mill DC driver.

Suddenly, snowpocalypse part 2 hits and all these people who normally can't stop whining about their lack of free time can't get out of their homes fast enough...and most of them don't have more than 6 inches of clearance under their cars or four wheel drive. Calamity ensues. The storm hit Friday and Saturday and I didn't venture out in a vehicle until Monday evening (I did make a few attempts at pedestrian activities which left me feeling quite mortal and a tad bit ruffled, all of which had to do with aforementioned drivers and an overall ignorance of the importance of pedestrian pathways). One would have thought that by rush hour Monday - 48 hours after the last flake had fallen - things would be passable in a 4 wheel drive vehicle that is one class below a hummer in the "tank" category. It was harrowing to say the least. Luckily my driver had a winning combination of confidence and experience, although I admittedly had moments where I doubted his sense, respect, and reverence for mortality, we arrived safe and sound. On our journey we were bumped around, slid (slewed), and often were stuck behind suddenly disabled vehicles. Pedestrians were walking in the middle of the streets (I'm their biggest advocate, but even I was miffed about their reckless endangerment of others as I noticed --jealously -- their nicely shoveled sidewalk), and cars would pull off to the "side" (aka stop in the middle with hazard lights flashing). Some of these people run our country -- what is going on? By all accounts it was a rapid fire of those absurd life moments, one after another. All we could do was laugh and hope for the best as we barreled over ice and through drifts to dodge obstacles.

One thing I didn't realize until this morning was the logic behind the lawn chairs. Last night and today, everywhere I looked there were fold out chairs. Are those for people to take breaks while they are shoveling? I thought idly. No, silly girl, they are people staking out their spot. They carefully shoveled their spot and they plan on it being there for them when they get back. Is this chair an effective flag for staking one's territory? Would I respect it? If I was looking for a spot, and my only option is one with a chair, or one I have to shovel, either way I have to exit my vehicle to park. Personally, I love JLO too much to put her in harm's way via a scorned shoveller, but I'm wondering just how well it works...

I'm back here at home and waiting for the first flakes of yet another storm that has promised to bring 8-10-12-18-24 inches to DC-Baltimore-Delaware.... this one has decided to come late, apparently. I'm not entirely sure what is going to happen if the recent 10-20 inch predictions come true. As one friend put it: "30+20=50... and that's only 15 inches shorter than me. What are we going to do with all that?"

We'll just have to see...

Childhood revisited.

People pay a lot of money to relive their childhood. We all have a "rosebud" moment, some memory we cherish, or object that represents a memory. It is funny how young it starts too, I know teenagers who are nostalgic about their childhood, which amuses me for two reasons... 1) I definitely starting getting nostalgic around the old age of 16 and yet roll my eyes a bit and 2) I still feel like childhood is in progress. When does this so-called childhood end? Is the seven year old I know who refreshes her county's website every minute to see if school has been called off any different from my 20-something friend checking her blackberry for the official word on the federal government's status? I STILL have my elementary school's main line memorized because I would dial it rapidly (redial wasn't quick enough) to hear the recording. Just last night I was told to "cool it" with my incessant university website checks....and truth be told I wanted to go to clinical so I wouldn't have to make it up, but the drama in the potential closing was too much not to feed into it.

The recent "Snowpocalypse" has me thinking a lot about the irony of childhood memories, and those who seek them... among other things. I can't imagine what is a better way to re-live your childhood than snow. First of all it's FREE. Second, it is straight magic. Sure beats paying big money for that original 1984 Optimus Prime action figure, eh [although, a rosebud sled sure would have come in handy so I didn't have to use a cookie tray...]? When it comes to snow, I think a lot of people would agree with me too, except that it seems like as soon as it comes down everyone wants it to go away... why?

In case you can't tell, I happen to love snow...probably more than the figurative "next guy"... and it seems like most people who don't hate winter love snow too. Snow is one of those polarizing things that has a hyperbolic effect on people -- they either LOVE it or HATE it. This winter season of '09-'10 has been a gift for snow lovers, at least in the Mid-Atlantic region. As a former Delawarean and current resident of the DC metro area, my roots are firmly in the midatlantic region - Delmarva will always feel like home. I spent a remarkable amount of time participating in winter sports... [perhaps why I am partial to the Winter Olympics--3 days!]. I remember the big blizzards of '92 and '96... and looking outside with wonder that has been unparalleled except when I'm traveling. Aside from the memories of sled ramps down front stoops, a golden retreiver making a maze as she trapses nose down in squiggles through the backyard, drifts bigger than me, snowmen and angels, hot chocolate by the fire, what else are the golden childhood memories made of? Snow comes, sometimes out of nowhere, and covers our world. It makes everything it touches more beautiful, edible, and coats the world with a sort of silence and peace that you don't get any other time. The passage of minutes slow, and even in an urban setting, being outside feels just a bit closer to nature. It takes something we see everyday and makes it look unrecognizable. It adds excitement and danger. It enables us to stay home and do the things we never set aside time for. We have no control, and at first we like it that way. It beats us a little bit, until we make it ugly and dirty and get rid of it to let life resume. Amazingly, towards the end, we want life to "resume" (but a fews days back in and we have lost all appreciation for "normal life" again). I can't speak for others, but those 60 minutes late Friday night where I sat in the snow with my roommate made me feel more alive than my normal routine, so I can't believe there are people who don't relish this storm. Although my snowed in experience has been different thanks to school (no five straight season of Lost watching on my Roku, closet organization and alphabetizing the spices/DVD collection for me, unfortunately...except I did bake some somewhat more adventurous things than usual), these snowed in days have been nothing short of wonderful. Yes, EKG analysis and complex cardiac has been the name of my game, but still, I got to take the time to make my note cards pretty, and perhaps a little overacheiver-ish... not something I get accused of much these days.

If I could have one wish with all this snow it would be maybe that it not be clustered into two weeks. If I didn't have an impending sense of doom (pulmonary embolism?) that school is going to be all the more miserable because we're going to have to make this up, I would be relishing it 100% as opposed to my current 95% relishing. We're supposed to get more snow now and again I can't sit still with excitement.

Thanks to Hurricane Schwartz/The Capitol Weather Gang and modern technology, we see this storm coming, but we never know exactly what we're going to get and what it's going to be like until it arrives (sounds like Christmas...). In my lifetime I've been built up and let down so many times by these snow storms, back in December I thought were were going to get an inch followed by the paradoxical heat wave to melt it all and leave it a thing of the past. Even the big storms seem to attract the warmth and before you can blink the snow is gone. Not 2010. This year, things are different, and I couldn't be happier. It might as well be the early '90s again....