Glorious Snow

Tuesday morning, I woke up to what I would call one of the most beautiful things I've seen all year: snow. Now, before you go and think that I'm insane, you have to understand that I'm from Alaska. I was born there. I lived in the same house from the day I was brought home from the hospital until the day I left for college (and then I went to Idaho, where they still have great winters). I didn't grow up with central heat or air: we had a wood stove instead. I grew up leaving frozen food outside in the winter, shoveling snow and splitting firewood with an axe, and walking 1/2 mile to the bus stop when it was 0° outside. Here in North Carolina, when they forecast snow I usually just laugh and blow it off, so I was genuinely surprised when I woke up Tuesday morning to find a couple of inches of snow and more coming down.


The view off our back porch on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after waking up, some friends stopped by wanting to know if we wanted to play in the snow. Shannon had to go to work, but of course I went! We played frisbee in the snow and then went for coffee.


Emily, Hilary, and Russ tossing the frisbee.

Shannon thinks I'm crazy for liking the cold and the snow. I think it's just normal...it's how I grew up. I don't like snow all year long, but in the winter, I think there should be snow. So, it finally feels like winter to me here! This is the first time in my 2 1/2 years here that it's snowed and stuck. It reminds me how much I miss a real winter.


Magnolia (and other) trees on campus.

All in all, Tuesday was great. The snow put me in a great mood, and I'm not working at my new job yet, so I've been able to take care of a ton of things that needed to get done. I'm still working on getting all my pictures and documents off of my old computer and onto this new one, but I got a good start. Our entire apartment is clean (baseboards and everything!), and the laundry and dishes are caught up. I only have one paper left to finish for my j-term class (Shannon has 2). We have almost all of our school books. And I finally made it to the bank after unsuccessful attempts on both Monday (MLK Day) and Tuesday (They were closed ALL day because of the snow!).

The new semester starts today, and while I wish that my last paper from my j-term class was finished before starting more classes today, I actually feel ready for the semester to start. I'm very excited for this semester because I'll only be working part-time and my classes shouldn't be that hard since 2 of them are Intro classes. It should be an enjoyable semester instead of a crazy one like my last 4 have been. So here's to a great last semester!


Sunset over the snow. What a perfect, beautiful day!