If you haven't heard, aren't living in Rochester, or if I haven't talked to you on the phone today (see below), we are currently getting hit by a massive winter storm. After my adventures in Denver in December, where it snowed about 36 inches in 48 hours or something, seriously screwing up travel, it's hard to get fazed by winter storm warnings of 10-17 inches. I take it back. This is some seriously bad weather.
It started up last evening but wasn't terrible-- by the time I left Erin's house (where Tia, Rob, Erin and I had a fun night of Mexican Trains), there was a couple of inches of wet, slippery snow on the roads. But there was enough bad weather to prevent Nicole (who I was supposed to pick up from the airport) from flying back from Australia to MN-- luckily, she is stranded in LA (yes, guys, she gets to enjoy even more time away from Rochester!), where she has family. Anyway, today, I slept in (till 8!) and puttered around, not having any real reason to leave the apartment. I worked on my poster for a while (which is frustrating me because I'm having a hard time fitting all the figures and tables in!), watched one of my netflix movies (Sweet November- just ok), read a bit, and then decided to venture outside to see if I could make it to the gym.
Well. This is one of those times when a garage would be a good thing to have in Minnesota. My car, along with the parking lot, streets, etc. was covered in about a half inch of ice. I couldn't get the key to turn in the driver's side lock. Although I was able to key open and bust open the passenger's side door (I just wanted to see if it would open-- at this point, I knew I would NOT be going anywhere but I want to know if there's a chance I would be frozen out of my car), I knew my car would need some serious scraping when the storm did let up. I came promptly back inside and resumed my spot on the couch, under a blanket. It's that kind of day.
So how have I passed the time? I am fairly good at occupying myself at home. I read some more, watched episode after episode of Scrubs (sooo glad I got Season 5 from Tia last night!), and TALK, TALK, TALKED on the phone. I literally was on the phone from about 1:30 until 5:30, requiring an emergent recharging of my previously-charged phone (this had not happened before). Who did I talk to? Here's the list: Justin, Cathleen, Molly, Nicole, Lesley (briefly), Erin, Mom, and Dad. Somehow this took four hours, which is some fairly serious talking from someone who was never a big phone person. But if you read this and are bored or want to be added to the list (especially if you have Sprint service :)), call me. I'd love to chat :)
I probably need to go to the store in the next few days for some fresh food (I got rid of some at our "save the leftovers"potluck last night [see Wendi's post]). But since I've been trying very hard recently to use up stuff from my cupboards/thaw stuff from the freezer, I wondered how long I could go without restocking, i.e. if this weather stops any travel in the city for more than a couple of days. Seriously, I bet I could last a month house-bound! I think, from now on (storm or no storm), I'm only going to buy fruit and lettuce at the grocery store and see how long I can go on the other stuff :)
How long am I going to be house-bound in this stretch? Well, I checked the weather and the forecast for every hour for the next 36 hours has the word "snow" next to it. It's not looking real good for any expeditions in the near future. And eventually scraping and digging out my car with a foot or more of snow ontop of this ice is going to be some serious aerobic exercise. Nicole, Natasha, Hans, and other people supposed to be coming back here are probably, unfortunately, stranded in strange places or airports. But I'm totally content right now. Candles are lit, it's very warm and hygge (a Danish word meaning something like "cozy") in here as I listen to the wind whistle outside, and I don't have to go anywhere for a long time...
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