Monday, January 31, 2011

Asking for It

I purposely waited to post this until my parents were safely in Israel, because I didn't want my mom to worry. Everything is fine now, and there is nothing she could have done to help from Utah, so I didn't want to stress her out! So, since my parents are now happily in Capernaum on vacation, I can post it. =)

Oh, what an adventure Wednesday was! It started snowing during my work day, and it snowed and snowed and snowed. At about 4:30, my boss called and told me to leave early since all my work was done. I wrapped up what I was doing and pulled my car out of the parking garage at 4:45. I couldn't even turn out of the garage in the direction I would normally go because traffic was apparently backed up from the main roads for MILES. I took a completely different route home. At one point the guy in front of me got cut off (because DCers + snow= stupidity x 2), and since he had just cut me off (though not nearly as badly) I ended up rear-ending him. Luckily it was only a love tap (if your into the whole tough-love thing), and the only real consequence was actually positive: it knocked all the snow off both our cars.

After two hours of driving, I was nearly home and at a dead stop. My housemate called me to tell me a different route home, and I took it. Unfortunately, snow covered the road signs, and I ended up turning one road too soon. When I ended up in someone's driveway, I figured something was wrong! As I was turning around, my car died. It works now, but long story short, it would not work then. The people who lived there were very nice and helped me push it into their driveway. They also let me leave it there until the road was cleared out and it was running, which was INCREDIBLY kind!
Sooo, I started walking out to a main road, where my housemates came and picked me up. They were armed with shovels to dig me out, but since the car wasn't starting and was in a safe place, we decided to leave it there for a while.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and the lights started flickering for an extended period of time. Turns out a transformer just outside the store was blowing out:

This picture was taken long after the sun had set. That is just how bright the blowout was. Crazy, eh? After that, the power was out at the store (luckily they had generators) and our house, which is about a block away from the store. We had a fun roommate night with the power out. We ate and played games and made hot chocolate. It was pretty fun!

The next morning, we got my car started, but couldn't get it out of the snow in the neighborhood we had left it in. The residents were once again very helpful!
After that, my roommate Katy drove me to work. It was kind of crazy. There were trees and branches down everywhere, and people had just left their cars in the middle of the road when they got stuck or frustrated. Seriously, DCers? At least get to a side lane! It was madness.
After work, I metroed up near my house, and my housemate Mike picked me up and took me to my car, which we finally got home. There was much rejoicing!

We were without power until Saturday morning. Friday night, we could see our breath in our house, so the three of us that were home packed up some things and stayed at the home of the Ladies of Dorchester. Thanks, Ladies!

All in all, it was a crazy weekend. It's supposed to sleet tonight. I don't even want to think about it! I'm also a little afraid I brought this on myself by making this picture my facebook profile pic:
This is from last year's February Snowmageddon. THAT was madness. =)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Backblogging


I'm trying to catch up on my blogging over the last 14 months, so if you see random posts for different dates, that is why. I will also try to simultaneously blog about more current things in my life. I know I've been a slacker in this department, but you can't say I didn't give fair warning: I struggle with the blogging!