Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well, we've had the first real, honest to goodness, sticking and leaving a big mess snow this morning. When I woke up the streets were covered in white powder. I'm not sure how long it's going to stay, given the heat that tends to melt the snow in mid-town but I'm sure it's pretty in Central Park right now.

This is a picture of Broadway uptown. Streets look nice and slushy don't they? Nothing worse than waiting to cross the street, and you get splashed with a combination of snow and dirty water.

But there are some advantages to the snowy weather. If you're a kid, there's always the possibility of a snow day. We never had snow days at my school when I was growing up, probably because I went to school in the city. I used to listen to the radio in the morning, feeling envious at all the public schools that were closed at the slightest hint of snow. I can only remember by school being closed once in 12 years, and we were closed for three whole days, that's how bad the snow was in New York. Basicall it takes a freaking blizzard for a private school in New York to close.

To make it worse, we weren't allowed to wear pants to school in bad weather. So what most of us did, was wear them under our uniform and then take them off outside school before entering. Doesn't that make a pretty picture?

Since it snowed so rarely in New York what did I do for college? Go to school in the frickin snow belt of New York, Syracuse, NY. It's not like I wasn't warned before I matriculated, but coming from the city I had no idea. I even turned down going to Bard, even though they gave me the most financial aid, because the campus was rural, and I wasn't into buying snow shoes.

I'd never seen as much snow as we had freshman year, I felt like I was drowning in it. Snow everywhere. And to make it worse, it snowed sideways so no matter what you did, you got a face full of snow. When people ask me why I graduated in three years, I tell them 'snow.' Not to mention the cold, get into your bones, fingers feel like they were falling off, cold. It snowed my first year in college from October until May. I'm not kidding you, we were hit with a freak snow storm in May. I remember my father coming to visit at the end of April to take my winter clothes home. As his car drove away back to the city, it started to snow. Thank god, I'd kept my snow boots.

Snow means hot chocolate with whipped cream, sitting in front of a warm fire, and reading a good book or two, or watching some crap TV. I plan on finishing the next 4 episodes of the first season of Popular, a WB show that was cancelled before it's time.

What do you love or not love about snow?