Snowpocalypse

I had always wanted to live in Virginia. The sound of the state name is just so pretty and when you are a little girl, you want things that sound pretty. Of course, that's something that never really changes. When I finally did move to Virginia for graduate school, I learned that the storybooks are true: there really are four seasons in a year! You have Spring, full of flowers and birds and cherry blossoms and so much more. Spring is absolutely beautiful. Then comes Summer. I knew Summer...in Texas you have Summer, Hot, and a short duration of Cool. Summer in Texas can also be called Hotter, depending on with whom you are speaking. In Virginia though, Summer is an enjoyable time that does not stay at 110+ degrees for days or weeks at a time, although it is still quite warm. I miss the Hawaiian summers, but you really learn to appreciate the season when it's sandwiched between Spring and Autumn (or Fall). Oh, Autumn! I absolutely love Autumn. The changing of the leaves, the rain, the bonfires. The pictures of Autumn I always saw in elementary school are real! And not only that, the season actually lasts for 3 months!! Amazing. It's always a toss up on which is my favorite season: Spring or Autumn. But if I absolutely had to choose, Autumn would win out. Which brings us to Winter.

Ah, Winter. "Blow, blow thou winter wind" (William Shakespeare, As You Like It) And this year, it really has been blowing! A typical winter in Northern Virginia is not bad at all. You'll get snow, but now enough to shut down the metropolitan area...especially the malls. There's usually enough to make a decent size snowman, go sledding and have a good snowball fight. If you had to measure, it would probably be between 8-12 inches most years. This year, however, proves to be the exception. Every so many years, Virginia experiences a REALLY good winter; one that can compete with the western states. The last one was 1996. This year is about 2 inches away from beating the winter record, at least it was at about 10 this morning. We got a bit of snow before Christmas. About a week ago we got some more snow, and this last weekend we got just above 2 feet dumped on us. We had all thought that what the news called "Snowmageddon" this last Friday and Saturday was indeed the worst. Saturday afternoon my roommates and I went exploring to see what other life we could find. When we passed people, they had the same look we did, the one that said "we survived." We thought we were out of the red. We were mistaken.

Yesterday afternoon it began to snow softly again. Snowmageddon, or what my friends and I like to call Snowpocalypse, was not over. Rather than this current storm being an aftershock, I think the last weekend was just a warning. The winds are reaching 30 miles per hour, the snow is no longer falling vertical but going horizontal, power has gone for many more people than last time.