Thursday, January 6, 2011

I'm So Excited!

As mentioned previously, I live in NYC.  A tidbit?  Not a huge fan of winter.  I used to be!  O God, the fun I had during the blizzard of '93 and '96! 

I lived in Pennsylvania at the time.  The plows would come up the roads, actually pick up the snow and dump it in HUGE piles on our front lawns.  To the 9 and/or 12 year old kids' mind, you may not realize, but these make GREAT places to build forts, complete with  hidden tunnels.  What you MAY realize is that we, at age 9 or 12, are not exactly engineers.  So we would start digging.  We each had a room, and big dug-out tunnels that we could move around.  A look-out area with no roof over it.  Amazing! 

We decorated by filling spray bottles with water and food coloring and spraying the walls.  And we'd crawl around all day, breathing our hot breath into the enclosed, snowy fortress.  And then at night when it got dark (or, 4pm... which every came first.) we'd go inside, and thaw out. 

The next day we were always so disappointed at how our 3 feet tall tunnels had, overnight, shrunken down to a foot and a half that we had to snake our way through.  We just couldn't figure it out!  How did it get so small??

I no longer carry the same affinity for winter and snow and outdoor activities.  In fact, snow melting is my favorite thing, and i really can't imagine spending ALL DAY out in the cold, especially not sliding around in icy tunnels.  I've been spoiled by the fact that I live across the street from my subway entrance and my office is only about half of a block away from the subway too.  The slightest chill sends me running for sweaters and extra layers. 

Last week I had a bout with Karma, and Karma kicked my ass.  Everywhere I turned..... OK... mostly just Facebook... I was reading that my friends and family all across the Northeastern side of the country were experiencing big beautiful puffy snowflakes outside their windows, just in time for that mythical white Christmas we're all always chasing.  Yet, here I sat, in New York City, and no snow.

Not even a flurry.

My whole life, all I ever heard about was how terrible New York winters were.  Hmmmm... I became skeptical.  Then bitter that we wouldn't have a white Christmas in New York, but everywhere else would!

Well.  Karma surely showed me who's boss.  Sunday, December 26th, I am in Hershey Pennsylvania, visiting my family before making the trip back to New York that night.  It was snowing, but just a little.  All the roads were cleared and salted and the snow had stopped by 9pm that night, and the DJ and I headed out.  Assuming that by the time we made it anywhere near New York City, they would have had time to send plows and salt trucks and we'd be just fine for whatever laid ahead of us.

This?  Is where we were wrong.

About 2 hours into our trip we were doing fine.  Snow was beginning to stick to the road ways and the DJ was about to loose his marbles over the stress of it all (wuss).  But then it really got ugly. (OK, he's not a wuss anymore.)  The road slimmed down to one lane that had been plowed.  The snow is really coming down, the wind is whipping it around creating massive snow drifts.  We're chugging along at maybe 10 or 15 miles per hour.  Slowly slowly, inch by inch we make our way until we see signs for the Holland Tunnel.  We're so close!  We're only 30 minutes out! We're doing so well!'  We can do it!  Wait.... why are we stopped?  WE CAN'T STOP NOW!

Oh, but we did.  For the next 5 hours we stopped.  In the same spot.  Staring at signs for the Holland Tunnel.  Watching the idiots driving the Civic and the Golf in front of us get stuck, dig themselves out, drive 100 yards, come back, dig out their new found buddies, go back to their car, find out their stuck again, dig themselves out... you get the picture.  Well, 40 ounces of coffee will catch up to you after 8 hours of being in the car.  The DJ, what with his convenient anatomy and all, just walked to the front of the car, faced me, and did his business.  I had to precariously dangle myself off the side of the car, know up to my knees and flash my goodies to anybody who may have walked by or used the ramp to our right to drive into the snowy abyss (neither of which happened, thank God!).

Finally the douche-monkeys in front of us got themselves stuck far enough to the side of the road that we were able to drive past them (because we were in a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  You?  Barely have 2 wheel drive on that vehicle.).  Another 2 hours and we were back in the city. 

OK, Karma.  You win.  I asked for it, you delivered.  Point taken. But the trash that is now left on our streets due to workers being shuffled around to handle the snow, and the snow scheduled for this weekend?  Not in any way necessary.

So why?  Why am I so excited?  You really wanna know?

Because until 4:30 today I could see sunlight.  And that, my friends, means we are climbing out of this terrible New York winter.  :)

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