Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Every time it snows, I feel invigorated.  That same childhood excitement that builds—Will we have a snow day? Or a delayed opening from school?—comes right back to me.  I feel an overarching need to build a snowman.  Make a snow ball and throw it at a target (and miss- obviously).  So I sit at my kitchen table staring at the snow falling and then that aforementioned energy fades and I want to go to sleep.  Too many snow flakes to analyze at once.  My eyes get heavy and then I realize… my childhood is over and it’s time to get dressed and get to work.  When you live in the city… you don’t typically get “snow days.”  Reality, life, the show must go on!

View from outside my apartment

Once I get outside, dressed warmly in Ugg boots and my very fashionable Mackage wool coat, I feel like saying, “Ok- I’m ready for the camera now.”  Snow falling in New York is very dramatic and there is definitely an element of the theatric.  Like the midtown theatre district dragged a production set down town.  The whole city seems quiet….and CLEAN!  There isn’t any honking and the constant city hum seems to be clicked on mute.  At times, you can almost hear the snow falling.  I love it.

So now I’m outside walking to work… trying to look cute, walking slowly to take it all in and somehow juxtapose myself within this environment.  Then it happens… what always happens.  The snow is heavy and wet.  I just blow dried my hair and now it’s going to look all messed up once I get to work.  And oh my friggin’ god!  I can’t see.  I’m legitimately blind.  The snow is sitting so heavily on my eye lashes that I can’t see a damn thing.  Will this mean my mascara is going to run?  Ok… ok… I’m blotting to make sure my mascara isn’t running.  Oh sh*t, I just botched up my eye liner.  Oh well this is just… WHAT?  The scaffolding is dripping water and a nice plump spill went right onto my head.  Right on the center part.  Now my head feels wet. And it was scaffolding water.  Yuck.  Oh lovely… that block of ice was not ice, but in fact slush… now my Uggs are soaked and my feet are cold.  Why is the subway so far?  Why does everything seem so far?  Ugh now the subway is going to smell like wet dog.  Is the smell me?  Is it my wet wool coat?  Why is this guy staring at me?  Is my mascara running?  Did I really smudge my eye liner before?  I can’t stand the snow! 

Now I am getting off the subway and for some reason, I feel like all the people getting off the subway are in this race up the steps.  And as always, I am directly behind a bag lady (preventing me from passing either side of her) with orthopedic shoes (so she’s going to be moving slowly) and a HUGE ass (so her slow walking will be a waddle).    Now I am up the stairs, aggressively trying to pass this woman and now waiting to climb the stairs behind a now very slim woman who decided to wear stilettos (as part of her commute) that she can barely walk in.  WTF!  So now I have passed her, but I HAVE to watch her walk through the snow and ice in these….  Wow… she’s pretty mobile in these.  I’m impressed.  But I still hate her because I look like a wet rat and still haven’t had my coffee yet.  

I’m on a one track mind now… GET COFFEE… don’t talk to people… don’t make any decisions about anything… just GET COFFEE.   I walk into café Europa and I have the same three women working there.  Of course (today of all days!), I get the one who pretends like she doesn’t know me or my order EVERYTIME even though I go in there 5 days a week.  “What do you want, sweetie?” she asks.  What do I want?  I want the same thing I order every day! The other woman (who remembers me by my daily visits—so nice), says hello and feeds the other woman (who has taken my order) exactly what I want.  I say thank you to the one who remembers me and then the woman who is assisting me asks if I want a bag.  No, I don’t want a bag!  Have I ever wanted a bag??!?!  NO! think I need to drink this coffee and calm down…  Why am I raging?  My g-d!  I never act like this.  What’s wrong with me!?

By the time I get to my office… I feel like I have been through war—I have experienced a day’s worth of emotions and I am back to feeling groggy.  My day has barely started and I am already ready for it to end.    Drinking my coffee and changing out of my wet boots to the mini closet I have under my desk… I feel better.  However slightly.  It’s still snowing outside, but this crack coffee is helping.  While some of my coworkers start piling in, I am getting some funny looks.  I suspect it’s because they too feel the commuter’s exhaustive schlep…. Then someone tells me I have make up half way down my face and my hair is akimbo…

…Oh yes…….let it snow, let it snow… let it snow!