Snow Job
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 02:06PM Allow me to divulge a secret from the Great White North: For some of us, snowstorms are freakin' fabulous.
Yes, I realize that for a lot of folks, blizzards are a pain. If it is your wedding day and you sent out 200 invitations waaaay back in October on a blazingly sunny afternoon; if you are about to give birth to twins any day now; or if you have three kids with the croup, then it's probably not the forecast for you.
Bottom line, snow elicits different emotions.
For instance, the movies have us snowed by their version of winter weather. In film, everyone lives nearby and can stroll to friends' and families' homes for a cup of hot cider and a warm chat, wearing matching cashmere accessories and a smile. On screen, people who initially thought they despised each other are bound to fall passionately in love when they are stranded in a luxuriously-decorated, modern mountain cabin that has silk sheets in every bedroom, a latte machine and a working hot tub.
On the other hand, the TV news typically makes snow seem as if it is the equivalent of Armageddon, featuring stories about people wrestling each other in the supermarket bread aisle for the last bag of bagels or standing anxiously in mile-long lines at Home Depot to get their paws on that last shovel or snowblower.
For me, however, an occasional snowstorm represents an opportunity that rests somewhere in between the movie version and the TV "start-panicking-now!" reports. After all, the with modern metrological technology, we are alerted about impending winter storms by at least the Fourth of July, so we have loads of time to get ready. For me, proper preparation starts with some food staples - dinner items, breakfast products and munchies I'd never buy unless it was a special occasion or a Tuesday. Add some wine, some decent DVDs (OK, "Bright Star" was slow, but who cares? I'm not going anywhere...), some good books, those sections of the newspaper I never had a chance to read last week and I'm all set.
During this weekend's record-breaking 28 or so inches in Philly, I stayed in my jammies til noon watching Project Runway On Demand and I bet you there were plenty of DiDi doppelgangers out there doing the same exact thing. It's the height of decadence, swaddled in flannel, sipping a cup of Earl Grey and watching Heidi Klum bring a young designer from Iowa to tears because his cocktail ensemble was an absolute, what-were-you-thinking disaster.
For the rest of the weekend, my hubby Dave and I hunkered down in front of our wood-burning stove in our den/dining room, grabbed another Girl Scout cookie and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Church? No can do! Exercise? Impossible. Walk the dog? I'm afraid it's the backyard for you, puppy!
So don't feel too sorry for us Northern folk when the Weather Channel paints a gloom-and-doom picture of our forecast. Yes, it's gonna snow, but we will manage, trust me. We will be well read, well fed, well informed and, well... relaxed.
Why? Because snowstorms can be a blast.
What's that? They're predicting another foot of snow in the Philadelphia region this week?
True, it was fun and all that, but let's not make a dang habit of this. In the meantime, clear out the bread aisle, sister - girlfriend is on her way...
Reader Comments (1)
I've seen you lounging in your jammies at high noon on the fifth of July! Who are you kidding?!