SNOW DAY!

Normally I blog about more serious things, but when 20 inches of snow falls over the course of 24 hours in Chicago and shuts down the city, I think that's worthy of a blog post :)

Getting home yesterday from work was an adventure... I left about 3:00, and it was as though it was rush hour and the Cubs were playing a night game. The trains were packed, the stations were packed, and it took a bit longer to get home than normal. Luckily, my whole attitude was "Hey, I'm just heading home like everyone else, and I don't have to go anywhere or do anything once I'm there, so I'm in no rush." I certainly didn't let everyone onto the train ahead of me, but I did wait for two trains to go by before I began to be aggressive about getting on one. Totally reasonable and fair, right?

Last night, a friend came over for dinner and ended up spending the night and enjoying the snow storm with us. We have a pretty good view of things from our apartment - we're at the corner of an intersection where our street dead ends into a pretty main thoroughfare. The snow was actually blowing UPWARDS last night, and we did hear some snow thunder and saw some snow lightening. We went out about 9:30-10:00 to see how things looked. We took pictures, made snow angels, just enjoyed the blowing drifting snow! My roommate and I walked two blocks west to a pretty main intersection in our neighborhood and everything was dark and closed! We made a couple more snow angels and walked back (and by walk, I mean "stair-climb hiked"). This morning when we woke up, there was another foot of snow outside, and it was definitely "white out conditions." Things started to taper off by 11:30-12, and that's when my roommate decided to bundle up and go out exploring. She spent three hours outside taking pictures and walking around by the lake with a couple friends. I spent the whole day inside, except for the five minutes I went outside to take pictures of our sidewalk and street, cars and bushes and more! I worked on some art projects, wrote emails, watched movies, took a nap, and more.

The best part about this snow day is I did not have to work, and I had no other obligations. I was supposed to give a lead at the meeting tonight but decided not to make the trek out into the snow and cold, and it worked out because a few people who lived closer were able to fill in! I was able to relax, be creative, rest, spend time with my roommate, and not worry. It was a phenomenal day, and I'm grateful for the forced/self-imposed day of rest :)