Snow Days

I have recently been re-introduced to a concept that I have not been able to take part in since high school, and even then the occurrence was rare. The Snow Day! That's right, it turns out that outside of crazy Rexburg (who of all schools should consider cancelling school for outrageous weather) schools actually close when the weather is bad! So far this semester we have had two and a half snow days! And we're only two weeks in! With all the new technology these days, we can stay home when there is feet of snow on the ground and still not have to make things up.  We have an online classroom where we can all meet at the regular times from our homes and listen to the teacher give the lecture.  It's the best! I can stay in my pajamas, wrap a blanket around me and have all of my books right there with me without having to haul them all over campus! I have to say I didn't really know how much I missed snow days until I discovered how wonderful they are again.  Unfortunately as I am becoming more and more of a grown-up, I am realizing that nothing is as simple as it was when I was a kid. It seems that now almost every wonderful thing has a down side, and the unfortunate down side of snow days is the snow.  Don't get me wrong, I love snow! But it's a lot different in a big city.  At home when it snows, the plows just come and push it all out of the way.  In the city, there really isn't room for it to be out of the way. So it just piles up and makes a huge mess for everyone.  It's fine if you stay inside, nice even, but if you want to go out, it's a nightmare! Yesterday for example.  Night before last it snowed a huge amount! I didn't really know how much because I hadn't been outside but I knew it was a lot. School was canceled and I stayed home and studied which was so wonderful.  But my friend Katey and I had made plans that I was really looking forward to it and didn't want to cancel so I braved the snow and went anyway. Well when I went outside I found my car like this...

and this is after I had cleared away what is now visible of the car. Not only was there a foot of snow encasing my car, the plow had just plowed down the middle of the parking lot and totally blocked my car in. It was completely buried.  Armed with my boots and window scraper I spent the next almost an hour digging it out. (note to self: invest in a shovel) Finally

Success! Notice that it's now dark. Turns out that was only half the battle. Now that it was unstuck I had to clear off the foot of snow that was covering the half of the car that I couldn't reach.

Finally it was clear and ready to drive. I made it to where I was going and we had a great time! I wish I could say that that was the happy end of the story. But if I thought that getting it out was rough, getting it back in was a nightmare!

When the parking lot was plowed none of the cars had been moved so it is just plowed down the middle with the snow piled into the parking spaces. When I got back and went looking for a spot to park, there was really nothing. I tried to turn around and got stuck. Great. And what's worse is that the piece of parking lot I was on is slanted slightly. So as I was going back and forth trying to get out of the snow pile I was stuck in, I kept sliding closer and closer to a parked car. I did everything I could think of but every time I got some traction and could have gotten out I came dangerously closer to the other car. Finally with about an inch between I decided there was nothing I could do. I would have to leave it till the morning when I could get some help. The problems with that were that I was completely blocking the car I was almost touching, the office at the apartment complex didn't open till 8 and I had a class at 8 that I could not miss. What to do, what to do... So I called my mom. Why? I don't know, she's 3,000 miles away, what is she going to do? Mostly I think I just wanted someone to cry to. Turns out though that she did have at least one good idea. She called the branch president from my church, who promptly drove to my apartment and together with his son we successfully got it unstuck and the owner of the car will never know the perilous danger it was in or the amount of stress I experienced over it. Now that my car is safely parked in a snow-filled space, it may stay there till spring thaw.