Snowstorm Recap

There was snow this weekend. Lots and Lots of Snow.
I spent Friday not believing the snow would come, as it was predicted to, because, well, it never does. Snow does not happen here. Ice does, but snow does not. I have glorious fond memories of the two snow storms we have had here in my lifetime. In 1996 we lived in Georgetown and I played in igloos made against cars from the snow plows and Mom lost her Christmas cards on our walk to the grocery store with our wagon, but someone found them and got them back to her. And Seal’s Kissed By a Rose played in every car. And our orange cat Bob would sled with us – no joke. In 2003 I walked the seven miles up River Road with my friend Cait to our friend Roxy’s house by walking in the tread left open from some SUV, and Alec drove in the snow with his Jeep, and that’s about all I remember, other than they didn’t open the public schools FOREVER because they couldn’t get their act together enough to shovel all the sidewalks. They being the government.

Well, in light of the predicted 2 feet-slash-blizzard-slash-seven-bazillion-feet-that-will-keep-us-locked-in-forever-and-ever that was predicted, I decided it would be best if I drove up to Annapolis on Friday, before the snow was supposed to start, in order to not be stuck in Takoma Park with just m television for entertainment. Also I am terrified of ice – it’s how I first hurt my back – and I believed my property manager would not have the gumption to actually shovel and salt our steps. And I would need food. And I would be iced in. not fun.

So it took me two and a half hours of slow slow driving to get the forty miles up to Naptown, and only fishtailed when I pulled into the second-to-last street before The Boy’s house. I listened to St. Matthew’s Passion the whole way. It was pretty neat.
And we woke up the next morning and the ENTIRE WORLD was white. And STILL SNOWING. The Boy woke early so he could shovel the snow off his boat, and when I woke we made eggs and coffee and bacon and sat around for a while, until the rest of the siblings woke up and we got in the Boy’s car – He was a lifty in Colorado for a while and not only LOVES SNOW but knows how to handle it like, well, like he lived in Colorado. We towed the boy, the brother and the sister on their snowboards behing the Explorer for a while. I’ve never snowboarded so it was mute for me to try. I handled the media element that ended up on facebook. We drove to pick up the sister’s best friend, and tried to get Chipotle (it was closed) so we drove to downtown Annapolis, ate Moe’s, and threw poorly sticky snowballs at each other until our fingers froze.

Back at the ranch we made gingerbread dough, and began a contest amongst the sister and her best friend vs. me and the boy vs. the parents. The brother’s friend was over, the Christmas tree was decorated, beers were had, lots of chatting, the brother is a stiltwalker so he taught his friend how to walk on stilts. At some point we went out to RE-Unbury the boat from the 500 plus pounds of snow laying on top of it. That was an adventure.

We opened the gin, we chatted, more friends came over and brought bourbon, cards came out, we played a few drinking games and headed out into the snow at 1 AM to bury the minivan that had gotten stuck in the middle of the culdesac.

The next day there was more coffee and waffles, friends were still there, and when they left we started shoveling out the cars. The Boy is a genuine 100% Good neighbor. He’s the kind that walks door to door asking if you need help shoveling out your car, offering to pick up some TP and Milk at the store because he’s the only one who can drive an SUV in the snow. So he shoveled out the minivan we buried earlier, plus my car, plus several other cars. The brother and sister and friend shoveled all the snow off the balcony and jumped into it, and by that point I was so dehydrated I opted to stay inside and chat with the mother. Which of course made me feel like the lame girlfriend who won’t try to surf and won’t jump off the balcony for no good point other than being tired and embarrassed.

The sister had many more friends come over at that point and I Fell asleep watching the Raven’s game. The mother was roasting a chicken in rosemary and I decided to stay for dinner, and then I stayed the night and drove home in the morning.