But I don't want to go mad.
We have snow everywhere, and feet deep. People are saying it's the most this area has had in like 80 years or something ridiculous like that. Pittsburgh is NOT equipped to take care of this kind of snow. The streets haven't been plowed. Half the buses aren't running. Today only two of the other girls and I are at work.
At first I found it quite comforting. There's something calming about everything being covered, about not the quietness that comes after a snowfall. My friend Kate said, "You're being quite cavalier about all this snow." I said, "I'm from the North Country." Which is when I realized, quite suddenly, how much of my childhood I've carried with me to my adult life.
When I left upstate New York, at the age of 18, I was really ready to leave that part of my life behind me. I adapted well to Pittsburgh, I'd say, and after my parents moved to Pennsylvania, there were several years between visits to the North Country. I didn't miss it. I still don't miss it. I miss New England pretty frequently, because that was also a large part of my childhood, going to New Hampshire every summer, road trips through Vermont, and our camping trip to Maine. But not once in the last eight years have I thought to myself, Wow, I sure miss Norwood.
So it's interesting to me, how calming I find the weather because it reminds me of my childhood. I wasn't expecting that. And yet, at the same time, after several days of this, I'm really starting to go a little mad. This could be because some giant truck drove by and ripped the cable wire from our house so now we have no cable or internet and there are few things to do besides clean, read, and watch movies when this sort of thing happens. It could also be because the entire city of Pittsburgh is shut down and leaving the house to walk anywhere is a great struggle. Either way, I'm going to have to find something else to occupy my mind tonight, because I don't want to go crazy. Today Josh posted on facebook that he loves the snow and hates the snow. And I know exactly how he feels. It's a strange dichotomy.
As a quick side note, about 4 years ago a really good friend of mine and I went to the library on an extremely chilly day in Pittsburgh. It was horribly cold. My friend said it was a good day to take a bath. This was quite the revelation to me, because I hadn't taken a bath, nor had I felt any desire to take a bath in years and years before she said that. But suddenly she was right, it was the greatest day to take a bath. So I decided to do it, and that was the first of many. From then on I was a bath addict. Yesterday I took possibly the best bath I've ever taken. Our tub is not amazing, but it's a tub, and the plug we had leaked. So Brad and I concocted a new plug from the lid of a small tupperware container. It works surprisingly well. I have this really nice, silky bubble bath, and I really dumped a bunch in, quite on accident actually. But it turned out to be a happy accident, because it was the bubbly-est bubble bath EVER. The water was hot and the tub didn't leak. What more could I ask for? It was really really nice. Everyone should take a bubble bath tonight. Do it. You won't regret it.
At first I found it quite comforting. There's something calming about everything being covered, about not the quietness that comes after a snowfall. My friend Kate said, "You're being quite cavalier about all this snow." I said, "I'm from the North Country." Which is when I realized, quite suddenly, how much of my childhood I've carried with me to my adult life.
When I left upstate New York, at the age of 18, I was really ready to leave that part of my life behind me. I adapted well to Pittsburgh, I'd say, and after my parents moved to Pennsylvania, there were several years between visits to the North Country. I didn't miss it. I still don't miss it. I miss New England pretty frequently, because that was also a large part of my childhood, going to New Hampshire every summer, road trips through Vermont, and our camping trip to Maine. But not once in the last eight years have I thought to myself, Wow, I sure miss Norwood.
So it's interesting to me, how calming I find the weather because it reminds me of my childhood. I wasn't expecting that. And yet, at the same time, after several days of this, I'm really starting to go a little mad. This could be because some giant truck drove by and ripped the cable wire from our house so now we have no cable or internet and there are few things to do besides clean, read, and watch movies when this sort of thing happens. It could also be because the entire city of Pittsburgh is shut down and leaving the house to walk anywhere is a great struggle. Either way, I'm going to have to find something else to occupy my mind tonight, because I don't want to go crazy. Today Josh posted on facebook that he loves the snow and hates the snow. And I know exactly how he feels. It's a strange dichotomy.
As a quick side note, about 4 years ago a really good friend of mine and I went to the library on an extremely chilly day in Pittsburgh. It was horribly cold. My friend said it was a good day to take a bath. This was quite the revelation to me, because I hadn't taken a bath, nor had I felt any desire to take a bath in years and years before she said that. But suddenly she was right, it was the greatest day to take a bath. So I decided to do it, and that was the first of many. From then on I was a bath addict. Yesterday I took possibly the best bath I've ever taken. Our tub is not amazing, but it's a tub, and the plug we had leaked. So Brad and I concocted a new plug from the lid of a small tupperware container. It works surprisingly well. I have this really nice, silky bubble bath, and I really dumped a bunch in, quite on accident actually. But it turned out to be a happy accident, because it was the bubbly-est bubble bath EVER. The water was hot and the tub didn't leak. What more could I ask for? It was really really nice. Everyone should take a bubble bath tonight. Do it. You won't regret it.
Holy cats, you've written a lot of these. I wonder why I never get notified of new ones? Sad face! Thanks for the shoutout
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing better than a hot bath on a cold night. It's amazing how much it warms you up, body and soul. About your post - I can really relate to this whole thing. As a fellow North-Country girl, I get the whole love/hate snow thing. Here in the UP, it seems like the town shuts down yet keeps on keeping on at the same time. The roads are practically unmanageable and the mail stops being delivered, and snowmobiles take over downtown, yet school is never canceled, and no one blinks an eye. It's a way of life up here, and there's nothing more peaceful to me than the quiet a snowstorm brings once it's settled. What I'm trying to say is that I like your observations!
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