Catching Up, or The Very Snowy Winter

Hello, blog, my old friend. Do you remember all those times I used to post about fun book events I was going to? Or news stories that impacted my life? Or random thoughts that would pop into my head and bring enlightenment to an issue I was deal with? Yeah, I miss those days, too.

There's too much to catch up on all that has happened in my life, so let me sum up.

I was a bit sad (as sad as someone who hates snow can be, anyway) when I got to Vermont for my last winter residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts to find it slushy and brown. But I wasn't there for the weather—I was there to learn and write and have fun, all of which I did. And just as I was ready to head home, the snow fell. After my flight got cancelled, I took the train from Vermont back to DC, only the snow decided to join us on the train, freezing the water in the restrooms and the doors shut, and what should have been an eight-hour train ride stretched into 16 hours. It was quite the adventure.

Back in DC, I got to attend the signing of my friend's second book (Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd), which was a blast. I also might have gone a little fan-girl on Stephanie Perkins—but come on! It was freaking Stephanie Perkins! My leopard gecko Harper thought this was Megan's best book so far.

I celebrated handing in the first packet of my last semester with a quick trip up to New York City for my friend’s book launch. Heather Demetrios (author of Something Real and the upcoming Exquisite Captive) is talented and funny, and I'm so lucky to call her my friend. We had a blast at her party and then spent the night dancing at her favorite club, and there may or may not have been a impromptu performance of "Sisters" from White Christmas at some point. It was a brilliant weekend away.

While I was up in NYC, my good friend's baby boy decided he couldn't wait any longer to meet us all and made an appearance a month and a half early. So the day I got back from NYC and the day my other friend just happened to fly in from Ethiopia (where she's stationed for the next year and a half) for some training, we went to visit Heather and her son. Healther Bingham is an incredibly talented opera singer, and while she's taking a few months to enjoy being a new mom, I look forward to seeing her back on stage soon. (Sorry, no baby pictures as I'm not sure Heather wants her son exposed online just yet.)

And then there was more snow. Six inches of snow between midnight and 5 a.m. meant DC was shut down for the day and I didn’t even bother getting out of my PJs. We've had four snow days this season, with four more delayed starts because of icy conditions. That brings the total snowfall for this season to 23 inches, eight inches above normal. But I could be back in Chicago where that total is 68 inches, which is 42 inches above normal. Small blessings.

So now you're all caught up on my life. Or at least some of the highlights. And only for the next few days until I bury myself in homework once again and forget to blog for awhile.

Stormy Weather

This morning, the beautiful and talented Jean Gralley posted an old poster of the Lena Horne and Bill Robinson movie Stormy Weather, which I loved when I first saw it as a little girl. So in honor of Jean, Lena and Hurricane Sandy, here's my Stormy Weather playlist that I'll have plenty of time to listen to as work's been cancelled today with a possible closure tomorrow as well.

"Stormy Weather" by Lena Horne
"Lightning Crashes" by Live
"It Blew a Living Gale" by David Baumgarten
"Rainy Day Women" by Bob Dylan
"A Little Fall of Rain" by Les Miserables Cast
"Downpour" by Brandi Carlile
"Come Rain Or Come Shine" by Billie Holiday
"Butterflies & Hurricanes" by Muse
"Drops of Rain" by Carbon Leaf
"Don't Rain On My Parade" by Glee Cast
"Ill Wind" by Billie Holiday
"She Gathers Rain" by Collective Soul
"Blow the Man Down" by Stan Hugill
"Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan
"Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind" by Spring Awakenings Cast
"Us Amazonians" by Kirsty MacColl (from Tropical Brainstorm)
"Darkshines" by Muse
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Ella Fitzgerald

Stay safe, stay dry and stay inside!

Storm Update

Growing up in tornado country, you spend a lot of time cleaning up after storms. You spend at least one weekend every summer shoveling muck out of a basement, cleaning up downed branches or picking up debris. And then serving a mission for my church in hurricane alley... Well, let's just say I saw my fair share of floods, over-turned trailers, uprooted trees and water-logged garbage.

But I've always been the lucky one. My home has always felt like the calm in the storm. Knowing my mom and dad would take care of us, that the power would be turned on soon, and that friends and family would be there if things didn't turn out so well.

This weekend has been a strange mix of the two. While I was without power for only 25 hours and I had plenty of nonperishable food and emergency supplier on hand, many people in my community haven't been so lucky. None of the stores have reopened, a lot of the traffic lights are not yet working, many cars are still buried by branches and the garbage is piling up everywhere. Emergency services still haven't been fully restored, and there is a lot of uncertainty around here. Probably the worst part is that I didn't have my family right around the corner to help.

Then again, I had several friends come and check on me when our cellphones weren't working. Another friend invited me to spend the hottest part of day at her pool and then welcomed me into her home to charge my phone, check my email and get some homework done. Though she had family visiting, another friend made up a bed for me so I didn't have to spend the night alone in my overheated apartment, and yet another friend two states away was ready to have me as a last-minute houseguest if my power hadn't been restored.

I still don't know when everything is going to be back to normal. Heck, I don't even know if my office will have power in the morning. But what I do know is that even when the unexpected happens, there are always people willing to help.

Friday Five: Signs of Spring in DC

It's been such a beautiful week that I decided to head to the Mall on my lunch break to look for some signs of spring in DC. And within minutes I found all the sure indicators that winter is finally over.

1. Construction: Most of the time it's roads and walkways that are being repaired after the harsh winter weather. Well, harsh for DC anyway. But today I stopped to check out the progress on the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.
   
   
2. Bikers: The other day I was reading a Washington Post article about how the city infrastructure can't keep up with the increase of bike commuters. So if you want to see the city on two wheels, please be careful!
   
   
3. Musicians: I will admit, some street musicians are horrific, but this bucket beater happened to be quite good. Over the years I've been lucky enough to catch a few professional musicians practicing in tunnels and Metro stations because of the fantastic acoustics.
   
   
4. Cherry Blossoms: Today marks the peak of the 100th year of these historic blooms, and any DC-area resident will tell you they are the highlight of the season.
   
   
   
   (This picture was taken by a passing tourist.)
   
   
5. Tourists: More than 16 million people visit out nation's capital each year. I happened to find this one sitting around on the Mall today. (It's my mom, in case you were wondering.)
   

The Whitest View

I got to sit in this for three hours because of the snow in D.C. At least I had the chance to listen to Neil Gaiman read Odd and the Frost Giants, which made half the commute extremely pleasant. I wish I could have gotten a clear shot from a rise so you could see the red lights mixed with the glittering white for miles.

Spring is right around the corner?

It almost feels like spring. Almost. Most of the snow has melted, except in those scattered areas where it was once pilled higher than my head. We're starting to talk about the community garden plot we'll be renting this year. And I bought my first concert ticket.

Music really is a huge part of my summer, and I'm excited that my first concert of the year will be to see a local(ish) band that I have been a big fan of since I moved to D.C. So thanks to Shamrock Fest, I'll get to see Carbon Leaf and a bunch of other bands to kick of the concert season.

We've also started going out again. The snow puts a serious damper on getting together with friends, especially in a town where there are about two cars for every one parking space and almost everyone's main form of transportation is the Metro. But Friday we went to Busboys and Poets where the service was horrible but the food and books were fabulous. And Saturday we went to a Korean karaoke bar where I lost my voice signing Beatles and Amy Winehouse songs.

I'm finally feeling human again now that I can leave the house. Bring it on, Spring! I'm ready for you.

Snow Scape (mini-update)

Free at last! My roommate and a friend helped me dig out my car this afternoon. We planned on going to see An Education but the theater was closed thanks to the snow. So instead we went to the post office and then blew all our money on crazy things like bread and milk. So it's back to the grind tomorrow as long as the ice from today's melt doesn't re-trap me.

Snow Baked

It's official. When it looks like this outside...


...it looks like this inside.


Want one?


I made them to look like the cars outside my window.

I'm probably going to be home again tomorrow as the snow I finally freed my car from yesterday magically reappeared today. I'm not sure what I'm going to make tomorrow as I'm out of powdered sugar. I did just get more peanut butter, so maybe I'll make cookies.

I just hope I can get to the store tomorrow so I can buy supplies for the dinner I'm having for an old friend who's coming into town. Keep your fingers crossed the airport will be open for her! Oh yeah, and keep them crossed that they'll be able to get back out again on Monday night because the weather man is calling for more snow.

Snow Bound

This snow is driving me crazy! Being cooped up in the house, you'd think I'd be productive and, I don't know, read one of the 50 books I have sitting next to my bed or finish my SCBWI WIP Grant application or get some homework done for my web design class. The least I could do is barrow a shovel and dig my car out of the two feet of snow it is buried under.


I made some progress, but then the bucket I was using shattered (yes, shattered) and I was left with no way to clear the snow. A walk to the store also proved futile as they were out of shovels.

But it's like in school when they tell you you have to read a book and it looks like a good book by an author you've liked in the past and you actually really wanted to read that book. But just because you now HAVE to read it, you have suddenly lost all desire to read it. That has been my life for the past week.

So instead I spent my time doing things like this:


baking Valentine's Day cookies to give to friends once the snow melts.


making cream cheese brownies for a movie night that gets cancelled because of the snow only to be forced to eat all the brownies with my roommate because it's really not the brownies' fault it snowed.


starting a new fashion trend of wearing boots from my good ol' college days in Idaho that I swore I would never wear again and pairing them with the same pair of jeans from yesterday because I really don't want to bother getting another pair of jeans all slushy.


watching episode after episode with the popular Australian television drama McLeod's Daughters on Netflix and seeing how many budding stars I can spot that now sport American accents on shows like Legend of the Seeker and Fringe.

Any ideas how I can waste time tomorrow and probably Wednesday as well? We're supposed to get another six inches, so Washington might be closed down for a few more days. At least I have internet access and can check my work email at home. So I have been able to get SOME work done.

A bunch of raging lunatics

I spent last night doing my taxes. I know—for those of you who take weeks to do you taxes and are in and out of accountants offices countless times between February and April, this might make you sick. But I'm single, own nothing of consequence and spent most of the year unemployed while I finished up school. I thought taxes this year would take about fifty seconds to say, "Hey, I made no money and dumped thousands of dollars into our failing economy because I paid out-of-pocket for school and my car died on me. I deserve a full refund on all $750 I paid in taxes."

Ha!

I had to file taxes in two states, and I have decided the Virginia state tax form is the most insane document I have ever seen. It took me three hours to do all these calculations only to find out I could have skipped half of them and just applied for a full refund. There are 47 lines on the Virginia Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return form, and that doesn't include the 23 sub-lines, two columns and about 50 worksheets that all need to be filled out as well.

And I believe to Utah State Tax Commission is just as insane. They (seriously now) put a little frowny face on the form on the line if you owe taxes and a little smiley face on the form if you should get a refund. Emoticons on tax forms? What is this world coming to?

By the time I finished the two state forms, I was wishing I could just fill out the federal 1040EZ a hundred times over. Here's to not moving this year and only having to file in one state.

Remember how just yesterday I was saying the weather was supposed to get better any day now? Well, I should have looked at the forecast a little more closely and realized it was going to get a lot worse before it started getting better.

And don’t get me started on the snow-induced craziness of this morning’s commute. It took me an hour to go the four and a half miles to work this morning because people freak out when they see snow around here. The calm blanket of white that now covers the DC area might look lovely and serene, but I know it is really a wizard’s spell designed to make people drive like lunatics. Maybe it’s a GOP conspiracy to put off the vote on the economic stimulus package.

I guess I should give them a break—not everyone was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Chicago, went to school in Idaho and lived in Utah. I have a lot of snow-driving experience.