Winter Wonderland!

It's absolutely beautiful here in MA. It snowed all afternoon and evening last Thursday, then began again very early this morning. I think at this point we have gotten at least 8" but probably more. When we walked down to the market yesterday for breakfast, we had to walk through some non-shoveled area and it came to the top of my snow boots! Since this is only the beginning of my 3rd year in the Northeast, this much snow is still very exciting for me! The best part is that the picture above is from days ago.

Although I do enjoy snow, and am loving sitting here near the window watching it fall, it's still a bit stressful. I have my one and only exam tomorrow afternoon, and if school is closed tomorrow I'm not entirely sure when the make-up exam will be. Since my family lives in the southern part of the states, I'm leaving on Friday so that I can get home a few days before Christmas (I take 2 days to get home). So any time after Thursday is impossible! Luckily, we rarely have school closings and they are only on days like today where it started snowing heavily in the early morning, so I suspect that it will not be delayed.

On a similar note, last Thursday was very interesting. I was "lucky" enough to need to drive down to CT to pick up a bridesmaid dress for my cousin's wedding. I left in the morning at 10, which should have put me there by 11:30 and back by 1:00, hours before the snow was supposed to start. Well, I was almost to my exit in CT when I hit snow. I decided to continue on since I was almost there, but of course the snow decided to fall heavy enough that we had to slow down. I finally arrived at the store around 12:00. All of the entrances to the shopping center are steep, and I had so little traction that my poor car had to try multiple times to get over the lip at the top and get back on the road. There was a scary moment where I didn't think I'd be able to get back on the road.

The drive back home, usually 1.5 hours max, took 3 hours! Driving on a I-91 was about 15mph except for the few places where the pavement was visible, giving a whopping 30mph for a mile or two! The entire drive was fairly tense, since slowing down and starting back up were both hazardous. It was great to see everyone driving cautiously though, and not too many people driving exceedingly slow for no apparent reason. The only crazy driver I saw was in a utility van, who was zipping in and out of traffic. He was going "fast" so probably about 30-40mph. How he didn't wreck with all of the snow still falling I have no idea.

Today I hope to take time to "play" outside, and call it a "study break" (as if that's not what I'm taking right now!). Hopefully I'll get a great picture of me standing in snow up to my knees to send to my relatives with 60 degree weather. Why am I going south for Christmas when I have a guaranteed white one up here?