this morning i looked out the window and--snow!
i love a good snow storm like i love a good bag of popcorn at midnight. which is to say, i love it, but also it gives me a vague sense of anxiety . . . i can't really explain it.
when i woke up i thought, oh! i have a baby! gosh his grunting is cute. how long has he been asleep i wonder?
i looked at the clock. i blinked a few times. i did the math quickly (and incorrectly, twice) in my head.
eleven hours.
whaaaaaaaaat?
later that morning, my huckleberry friend all bundled and happy and strapped in his stroller, the two of us set out for playgroup and a bagel with sliced tomato.
my arms burned as i shoved that stroller over mounds of show on the sidewalks. my breath came in heavy swirls before my face as i passed grown men wielding shovels and salt and big happy grins, wishing me a good morning and stepping aside to let me and my tromping snow boots pass.
we dipped through a few sludgy pools of murkiness at an intersection. we dodged a couple of old ladies in elaborate furs, snow sticking to their coats like white confetti. we peeked in at the abc studios as we passed. the standby line for regis and kelly had gotten pretty long and the doorman said to the snow shoveler, "you missed a spot!"
the air was white and thick and the buildings were blurred behind and when i ate that bagel i felt like i had earned every last bite of it.
on days like today i think that even if i could have the white picket fence, or the fully-loaded SUV, or the big back yard, or the deluxe laundry room down the hall, i don't think i'd want it anymore.
we're supposed to get another ten inches of snow in the city tonight and i can't wait. i can't wait to show it what i'm made of.
Those pictures are beautiful. Like icing sugar on cookies, snow doesn't stay long on the ground in the city. It sure looks nice when it's first sprinkled on though :)
ReplyDeleteI have about 5 inches already down here near Philadelphia! It looks gorgeous, not for long though!
ReplyDeleteDude. Eleven hours? That's classic growth spurt behavior right there.
ReplyDeleteYou are a trooper. When it snows AT ALL, even just a half-inch, I don't leave my house...which is to say it's been a long miserable winter!
ReplyDeleteThe sludgy pools at intersections we have christened "Black Puddles" because they LOOK like cement, but are actually disgusting water, and you have to watch out or you could step in one in improper footwear and be totally, um, screwed for the rest of your day.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds lovely. I've never been a big city kind of girl, but I think I'd enjoy a year or two of the city life after all. It would be an experience to enjoy -- before I go back to my country acreage and picket fence. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love snow, but it starts to get old around March :/
ReplyDeleteI woke to two feet of snow in our little borough this morning. And now that I've read your forecast about ten extra inches I may have to go and prepare for the end of the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Creole, but for me it starts to get old around January! Way to attack those snow-covered sidewalks--and in style, I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteI'm in between on the city or picket fence living. I do adore the big city, but having a ten year old son...it's so nice for him to have a backyard and be able to ride his bike down the street. Now if I could just get the awesome laundry room down the hall!
ReplyDeleteYou're so fun to read, and your love for the city is lovely. I'm just going to say that all that joy in accomplishment gets a little old when your stroller holds heavier, more numerous babies, and especially if you have a kid who is trudging along, too. And especially if you are doing that when you are pregnant and so you are cursing your husband's name for not buying you the MOST expensive stroller out there because this is freaking impossible!!! As if I'm not worn out enough, all those people are just staring at me trying to get my whole entourage into the door of the UPS store, then it's back out onto the sidewalks of snow-doom for the 5 block haul back home!!! Who does he think I am, shera?!? But then, maybe NY doesn't get as bad as Chicago. In fact, I never saw anybody shovel the sidewalks in South Side Chicago except my own maintenance manager.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean for that to sound like, "but then, I guess you don't have it that bad, you ARE a little bit of a wimp..."
ReplyDeleteNo, I meant it like this: "Maybe you won't end up cursing your husband and hating it and wanting that picket fence after all. Maybe you won't give up like I did."
I get that excited, anxious, romantic rush too when I wake up to snow flakes, or changing leaves, a cloud of fog, a storm, the first green shoots coming up in the spring...it's like I remember I'm alive and I get excited. : ) It's waking up to a little adventure.
ReplyDeleteI love snow too - before Christmas we had so much snow! The whole country practically collapsed with the shock of it. And you know what - it hasn't snowed since the week before Christmas but there are STILL piles of greying 'stuff' by the side of roads and next to pavements (sidewalks to you US folks). When will it melt? Maybe never.
ReplyDeleteAnother TEN inches??? Noooo! Make it stop!
ReplyDeleteI used to think snow was wonderful and magical. And then I moved to NYC. And while it's still ever-so-lovely as it falls, the aftermath is a terrible reckoning.
I miss the snow! We moved to a warmer climate where snow is a rarity, and therefore everything shuts down at the mere sight of a flake. LOL!
ReplyDeleteWas wondering...ok, so I am a librarian in training, and have heard marvelous things about the New York library...do you and Huck maybe possibly have a trip planned there? Perhaps with also a camera?
:)
You are so hilarious - whether or not you are mommy blogging :-)
ReplyDeleteI miss the snow... about once per year.
11 hours of wonderful sleep? I think the snow was just God's way of helping you celebrate!
ReplyDeleteMy first thought is almost always about my boobs too, especially when Jack started sleeping through the night. Thankfully boobs are magical and adapt very very quickly to new schedules. It is like they have brains. Creepy - boob brains!
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