Snow Good

Yesterday I tried to get everyone excited about the imminent first snow fall. "The weatherman on MPR said it's going to be 6-12 inches! We'll be snowed in - isn't that great?" Whether from true disbelief or denial, no one seemed as worked up about it as me.

Looking through the blinds in my basement bedroom window this morning, it appeared they were right. I couldn't make out a single flake. Shimmying out from under the covers, I stepped into the living room to get a better look. I peered through our half-buried egress windows. Snow. Everywhere. Falling in big, wet clumps and clinging to the trees and signs like a fat hoarfrost. The middle schooler I used to be smiled wide and rushed back into the bedroom to tackle a still-sleepy Nathan. "I TOLD you so! Hah! It's snowing for real, and I think it's going to pile up pretty big. You better get out here so you can get a good look!"

There are many types of snow days, but one of my favorites is the college snowday. Your dorm sidewalk is impassable, no way to go to the library or the study lounge in the science building. Might as well snuggle up in your sweats, heat up some Mac 'n Cheese and start watching an "I love the 80s" marathon on VH1.

Today is my own sort of college snow day. We hopped the bus to the University of Minnesota's East Bank, passing traffic accidents and stuck vehicles along the way. Watching the flurries pass by my window, I marveled at how excited this first snow fall had me. Visions of bread making, movie watching and winter hand crafts danced in my head, and the guilt of staying indoors melted away despite the temperature. Just days ago, I'd been taking my morning walk in 50 degree warmth and mourning the coming cold, but once it arrived I remembered many of the reasons to love this season. The decadence of winter blankets on the couch, cups of cocoa and steaming bowls of stew, knitting and sewing, baking and decorating. In many ways, winter is a season of creation as much as spring.

Arriving on campus, we descended from the bus and wound through the hallways of the electrical engineering building, taking the back way to a mechanical engineering computer lab. Now with just the soft clicking on keys for company, I pour cup after cup of tea from a thermos while I watch the snow swirling outside and relish the feeling of the running pants I'm wearing. Maybe I'll crack open my new library book, or finish my embroidery project. More likely I'll just watch the world go by for a bit, soaking up these last weeks in a city I never knew I could love until I gave it a try.

In December, we'll be packing all our stuff and moving to Jackson, Minn., where Nathan got an engineering job with a farm machinery manufacturer. It's going to be new and exciting, and probably fun since the two of us are involved. Like Johnny Cash said, "Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town."