Snowpocalypse 1 & 2

Once the sun came out...

That blobby hump behind Zach is his car....

Before Snow After Snow (Currently)

Last weekend, over 24" of snow was dumped on us within 24 hours. That's an inch an hour folks. Baltimore has not seen a snow storm like this in many years. When it finally stopped snowing, our city was turned into a literal "Winter Wonderland". No cars except plows were driving on the roads, mostly due to the fact that most everyone's cars were buried in snow. The folks lucky enough to have garages could not drive. Not even big 4x4 trucks could drive because they simply do not have the clearance required to maneuver these roads.

Ridiculous right? No. I have been waiting for a storm like this my entire life. I was made for snow. Am I cold? Not really. But I do have an iresistable urge to dive into the powder any time I see an "untouched" area that is free of steps or snowballs. All I have wanted were real winters, ever since I lived in Germany as a child. I have had too many "coincidences" of missing snow that it became clear to me that they were not merely coincidences, but a no-snow curse. When I have tried to explain this mysterious phenomena to friends and family they have simply said it's because I carry the "California sun" with me, wherever I go. Sweet thought, but all I want is snow. Following are a few examples that led me to believe that my snow mishaps were no coincidence.

• The last two times I have flown to Germany it has been "unseasonably warm". So much so that none of the ski resorts were open. Not in Germany, not in Austria, not in Switzerland. Two days after arriving home in the states, my aunt calls from Germany saying, "You are so lucky! It just DUMPED over a meter of snow last night!"
• The winter I flew back East to Iowa, then Maryland to meet Colter's family, everyone was baffled by the lack of the white-powdery stuff they were usually guaranteed to have this time every year. While on our trip, my mother called me from Redding saying it had DUMPED snow. By the time we returned it had melted. Not a single flake in sight.
• During the summer of 2003 I flew to Germany to spend time with my grandmother. We vacationed at Lake Konstanz, a beautiful and very humid lake that connects Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, and France. It was so hot and humid there, that in the center of the lake exists a tropical island. In the middle of Europe. Can you believe it? We were there for two weeks soaking up the sun and visiting castles and art exhibits. Not 3 days after we left back for our village in Germany did we hear on the news that the island had experienced a fluke storm...complete with snow.

There have been many other instances of these types of things happening, but I've chosen to highlight the main events for you.

After last weekend's snow, we (Colter, more specifically) worked very hard to free our car of 2 ft snow. Our neighbors dug out their cars also, and put the snow right in the middle of the street as there was no where else to put it. Now we have a 5' pile of snow going down the center lane of our street. :) I love it. Some people's streets are being plowed, but ours are not because the street is too narrow. I guess when selecting out house to buy, we should have considered the "what if we get hit by a rare and huge snow storm and our street doesn't get plowed"?

Snowpocalypse #1 highlights:

• Matt & Jen Hardy cross-country skied to our house to throw snow-balls at our window
• Colter got the whole week off "snow days!" teaching AND his Master's classes
• We had a snowed-in slumber party all weekend filled with playing games with friends (within walking-distance), hot cocoa and baileys, pajamas, blankets, and LOTS of Hero's episodes (thank you Netflix instant play!)
• Walking on the main streets without fear of being ran over
• Sledding (specifically, Zach sledding dangerously fast and eating it each time)
• Zach jumping off a building rooftop into the powder just for fun
• Watching kids play
• Oliver jumping into the snow and essentially disappearing

Just as the city started to recover two days later, we were informed that a second storm was coming through, that will dump just as much as the first, but that we'll have wind also. As I look out the window right now, I can barely see the houses across the street from us. The snow is blowing sideways. And though I'm not particularly itching to go out and roll around, I am excited about tomorrow's prospect creating a ramp from our front steps to slide down. How awesome would that be? We are gearing up for more games, more movies, sledding, and might experiment with building an igloo in the back yard. Care to join?! We have alcohol....

I am glad that we left California, for many reasons. I will always miss certain aspects of good ol' Cali...but I do not long for it as the temperature drops below 30. I do not wish to be soaking up the sun or wearing shorts and a t-shirt in January. I don't want to see green grass or budding leaves right now. That just doesn't seem right, and for that reason, I am glad I have lost the "California sunshine" and officially am now and East Coast Gal, and proud of it.