Orange Hoodie

Worked from home today because, well, I’m trapped here, which was fine. I updated a thing. I really hope the buses are running tomorrow because I need to print off 10 copies of the thing for some software training on Thursday. Tomorrow may be my only chance to do so because of the next snowstorm.

National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for D.C., effective noon tomorrow to 7PM Wednesday. All parts of the forecast that were just sent remain the same, except the projected snow totals HAVE BEEN INCREASED TO 10-20″.

Don’t mind me. I’ll just be weeping over here in the corner, fully defeated by the snow.

1. One thing I’ve noticed with snowstorms is that the neighborhood suddenly becomes much friendlier. People I’ve said, at the most, hello to are out shoveling their walks and eager for some small talk, a chance to say, basically, “Wow, what a storm!” You pass people on the street (because everyone’s walking on the street rather than sidewalks) and everyone smiles and says hello. It’s like a sudden comradery is formed as we experience this whole bizarre snow thing together.

2. I just went outside to begin digging out my car. There’s just no way. There’s simply too much snow. I managed to brush about a foot off of the car (maybe half of the snow) before I was beaten down by the complete futility. What’s the point when the car’s not going anywhere? On the driver’s side/road side, the snow is piled up to the windows of the car. There’s just too much of it. It’s not as bad on the sidewalk side, but it’s high enough that there’s no way to open the doors. Digging out isn’t going to happen. I need to accept that until it melts (March?), I am a pedestrian/public transportation user.

We’ve still got several more inches of snow to go. I’m clearly not going to be going anywhere for a while….

These are the steps leading up out of my apartment (basement apartment).

These are then the steps leading down to the sidewalk.

And this is my car.

And so we prepare for the end of the world (again). I do enjoy the term “snowmageddon”. It matches so well with December’s snowpocalypse. My hallway at work is lightly populated, but there seemed to be the normal number of cars out there this morning. However, the city will apparently be shutting down around noon: Federal government will be closing, schools closing, universities closing. Assuming it starts to snow by then, I’ll probably leave around then too. However, the latest forecast makes me think it may only be raining until this afternoon. But who knows.

I haven’t heard about museums closing early except that many are not planning to be open this weekend. Which was a convenient reminder that I need to get a ticket and go see the National Geographic Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. Not this weekend, of course, but, you know, soon. It’s only here until March. I REALLY want to see that.

You know, I’m actually really enjoying all the drama and panic over snow. (No, 20 inches of snow would close nothing in Utah. The ski resorts would be packed with skiers, though.) It encompasses every conversation, every local blog, every local news cast. It’s a lot of fun. So I can’t help but join in!

I close this entry with two links:

• The first that summarizes everything well.
• The second that makes me laugh.

My not-so-productive Sunday:

1. Got up earlier than I would have preferred. Oh well. Still got 8 hours of sleep.

2. Went outside (brrrr!) to brush the snow off my car so that the remnants would be melted off by the sun and so it wouldn’t partly melt and then refreeze on the car making it an upleasant mess tomorrow.

3. Didn’t go to church. Because it was canceled on account of snow. Four inches of snow. Wimps.

4. Read the church lessons missed since there was no church. Enoch fascinates me.

5. Watched Meet the Robinsons. I hadn’t seen it before. Good movie.

6. Finished a book. Fabulous book!

7. Garbage day tomorrow, so I cleaned out my fridge. There were a few things in that that were… frightening. And possibly sentient and hatching a plan to kill me in my sleep. So it’s good they’re now out by the curb and my door is locked.

8. Read some blogs. There’s one I’ve recently added to my reader: Capital Catholic. It’s the blog of a kid at GWU who is going to a different Catholic church in DC each Sunday. I’m greatly enjoying reading his posts. I think one reason I like it is because, if I were Catholic, this is exactly the sort of thing I would do.

9. A memory: When I was in first grade, my school had some sort of drawing contest about drawing your favorite animal. The best one in each grade won a silver dollar. I drew a camel. A camel wasn’t really my favorite animal; I didn’t have a favorite animal, but I liked camels, so it would do. I won. When the principal visited my class and presented me with the silver dollar in front of everyone, he held up my picture. He asked me what it was a picture of, and I could totally tell he had absolutely no idea, that my drawing was indecipherable to him. I was so offended. “Why would he pick it as the winner if he couldn’t even tell what it was?!” I thought. Nevertheless, I answered him and gratefully took the silver dollar. I think I spent it on candy at Woolworth’s. To this day I wonder why mine was selected since it was clearly a poor representation of a camel. Maybe every first grader’s picture was equally indecipherable.

10. Over the past couple of years, camels have become one of my favorite animals. I also have a thing for octopuses/octopi/octopodes.

I am part of a fabulous book club. I love the women in it – all interesting, intelligent women – and I love books. What’s not to love about the whole thing? It really is a fabulous group, and I’m incredibly lucky to be a part of it. Tonight was book club, as well as the State of the Union. Being Washington, DC, there are, of course, some very politically-involved people, but we met anyway and then ended early enough that those who wanted could stay and watch the State of the Union together.

So there we sat, watching the State of the Union on TV like everyone else watching it across the country. But we were a mere 5 blocks away from the actual, live thing! And we could hear the drone of helicopters circling overhead. Some also had to be aware of road closures around the Capitol. It’s all just so cool!

Most of us left in the middle of the speech for various reasons, as did I (I hate the constant applause and prefer to read it the next day; actually, I have little patience with political speeches in general, cynic that I am), which is why I’m typing this up now even though the speech is still going. I’m 2 or 3 blocks further away now. The helicopters overhead are kind of getting annoying. But still… I can’t believe where I live!

That’s right. Despite swearing off singles wards years and years ago, I’m giving it another shot. For I am a fool. A fool who is going to 6 hours of church, though I’m not sure how long that will last. This was only the second week, and I’m already burnt out.

The brand new mid-singles ward (”mid-singles” being defined as ages 31-55ish for the purposes of the ward) started up last week in the stake next door. The bishop of the new ward has stated multiple times that people are welcome from anywhere, even if we can’t have our records moved there. So I – and several others from my regular ward because my regular ward is about 1/3 singles – have decided to be perpetual visitors while continuing to attend our normal family ward and fulfill our callings and whatever there. Also, I adore my normal family ward and wouldn’t want to leave it anyway.

Last week there were 210 people there and only about 25 of them were male. Pointless odds, from my perspective. I don’t know this week’s numbers, but there were a few fewer altogether. There were more men, though, and fewer women. I’m guessing the men heard about the fabulous odds in their favor and the women gave up. So this week the odds weren’t quite as uneven, but the men are still wildly outnumbered.

And yet I’ll continue to go, for I am a fool. A tired fool. For 6 hours of church is a freakin’ lot of church.

Another day, another allergist appointment. Actually, it’s been over 4 months since my last appointment, so it’s been quite some time since I’ve seen the allergist (in comparison with the annoying frequency that had been happening). This was just a follow-up, but he is displeased with the frequency with which the hives and swelling are breaking through the antihistamines and I must turn to steroids for relief. I actually thought it was pretty good (only about 20% of the time), but he doesn’t. So on with more experimentation. First we’re going to try two weeks on one more innocuous, safe drug, one of the few I haven’t already tried. If it doesn’t work, though, we finally move onto the heavy stuff: anti-rejection drugs. He said the side effects of the steroids at the frequency I’m taking them are actually worse than the side effects of the anti-rejection drugs. So… okay.

On with the experiments!

The last time I went to the allergist, I did metro. His office is very close to a metro stop, so that seemed like a fabulous option, but it turned out that it’s really not a pedestrian friendly area at all, and parking is free and plentiful, so this time I decided to try driving. The allergist is in Silver Spring, which is just north of DC, and I work at the south end of DC. Thus, I knew my GPS would want to take me through DC, but having done that several times already for other things, I wanted to try going around, so I printed out directions for around rather than through. I knew I’d just need to get partway around before the GPS would give up and direct me the way I wanted to go. I didn’t want to ditch the GPS entirely, of course, because I needed it to get me to my destination once I made my way around DC.

My path was I-295 to the George Washington Memorial Parkway to I-495 (aka, the Beltway). So I started along the path and my GPS kept directing me to leave my planned route so it could take me through the city. The foolish GPS thinks it’s faster that way, but the GPS is smokin’ crack, for there are horrible things there like traffic, stoplights, people turning left, and – the greatest horror! – roundabouts. And if you’re really lucky, there’s a random protest outside some embassy, and the protest is spilling into the road and messing up traffic even more. I kept ignoring the GPS. Five times it tried to direct me back into the city and five times I ignored it.

I felt so guilty. Here it was, trying to helpful, trying to do its job, and I was thwarting it. How could I be so cruel?! I almost cried. I’m not kidding, by the way. I really felt guilty and felt a bit teary about it. I told myself to get a grip. It’s just an electronic thing! It has no feelings! But my bizarre empathy with inanimate objects would not be swayed. Absurd.

It finally gave up and led me perfectly along the path to the allergist. Because it was a slow crawl once I got to the Beltway, it took almost exactly as long as the path though the city would have taken, but it was A LOT less stressful. I’ll definitely go around again. Unless I do metro next time. I’m undecided on which is ultimately easier.

Since I drove, I stopped by a nearby Trader Joe’s after the allergist appointment. That’s probably the best benefit of driving. I like Trader Joe’s.

I hadn’t planned a path home, so I just let my GPS take me however it wanted, and so through the city we went. It was pretty painless, though, since the worst of rush hour traffic was over by that time, plus I was going into the city and most people seemed to be going out.