Well, in anticipation of being trapped on 32nd Street again and my school not closing on Thursday or Friday even though the rest of the state did...I opted to spend the rest of the week in Columbia for easy work access. This has some pros and some cons...
cons:
If school does end up closing, and I am down here for no particular reason, I will be angry.
I will miss my roommates.
I will miss everyone being out in the streets all day.
When I finally go back this weekend, there will be no parking spot for me. (And a big 'Thank You Very Much!' to the red Mercury who stole our chair and our well-earned spot this morning, ya idiot.)
pros:
The plows actually came here, and they left a killer snowbank out of which I can make the best igloo ever for Johann, who arrives with parents in tow on Friday.
If work is not cancelled, I can go in instead of wasting another one of my days off.
My parents have lots of food.
Overall, though, I do love blizzards. A bunch of fluffy, white, soft stuff falls from the sky, and life as we know it comes to a standstill. It doesn't hurt anyone; it's not a natural disaster; it just makes things...stop. And all your plans go out the window. That's pretty fantastic.
As I type this, a tow truck is outside my window. I heard it spinning out and going back and forth for several minutes. The driver is merely trying to back up and get his truck off my street. He is shoveling tire tracks on the road by hand just so he can get out.
He finally made it. I think I made the right decision not to go to work today, although the administrator who answered the phone seemed shocked that I would still be stuck. Even if I had made it out today, it's supposed to start snowing again at noon. This whole situation will repeat itself. There's not a plow in sight.
People have been calling this Snowpocalypse 2010. I didn't really buy into that title until my roommate drove us home in her Jeep from our weekend snowed-in getaway, only to find this in the middle of our street. Yes, an abandoned car in the middle of the road. Okay, Snowpocalypse it is.
You know, I kind of like going to the grocery store a night before a big snowstorm. It's good people-watching. One guy was wearing a red fez tonight. You also get to make small talk with people in the neighborhood and gain insight into how people view snow in Maryland. For instance, the guy next to me must have thought he wouldn't be able to leave the house for the entire week, because his cart was filled to the top and included several jars of pasta sauce, a few gallons of milk, and six frozen cakes and pies. He looked like a contestant on Supermarket Sweep, which is fortunate, because I have been wanting to mention it in this blog lately.
In my opinion, all men are islands. And what's more, now's the time to be one. This is an island age.
The other night, I was with a bunch of friends, and I found out that no one had seen About a Boy. This is a fantastic movie, and it is now my mission to spread the word. It pretty much hinges on the same theme as a more recent awesome movie, Up in the Air:
People shouldn't be isolated. It's very easy to do, and it's numbing, but it's no good.
