Wear Your Pajamas Inside Out!

Upstate NY is experiencing what many are calling #polarvortex – essentially, high winds, incredibly low visibility, and subzero temperatures. Super fun. On Monday, I left work early so that my drive home wouldn’t be in the dark, and struggled through the drive home with my flashers on, staring at the tire tracks a foot in front of me. It was tough, but I’ve managed to make it home in much worse (and more stressful) situations.

Naturally, everyone took shelter Monday night, anxiously awaiting the call be made that work was closed down. I heard from others that parts of the thruway had been shut down, visibility was gone, and temperatures were already dropping. The interesting thing about working in Higher Education is that snow days are still a thing, and it always feels like your school is the LAST one to close down.

Sure enough, at 5:56 am, we closed down. Hooray! I turned off my alarm clock, slept until 10:00, and finally got myself out of bed. I had a whole list of things I wanted to get done in my head, but I stayed on the couch and watched mindless TV for much too much time. I was slightly productive and cleaned some of my apartment, did my dishes that had piled up in the sink, tried a new recipe in the crock pot (chicken, frozen lemonade concentrate, vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup – if you’re interested.), went grocery shopping, and even successfully made an unhealthy version of edible cookie dough a la Pinterest.

And now we’re at day two of no work because of #polarvortex, and it’s incredibly boring. Living alone means that I don’t technically have to talk to anyone all day, especially when I’m holed up inside my apartment trying to stay warm. Fortunately, the sun is peeking out and it’s getting a little warmer outside, which means I can at least get out and go to a restaurant instead of cooking everything left in my apartment!

Snow days in high school were fun because all your friends were close by and had nothing else to do, but snow days in adulthood is different – not everyone has off, and if they do, they’re too far away to go outside and play in the snow!