it snowed an inch and the world ended: life in georgia

Thanks to (at least in part, I'm sure) the devoted praying and hoping of millions of residents of the South, our dreams of snow became a reality yesterday. First snow since 2011, baby-- woo!!!! I am thankful that my personal snow experience has been all positive so far, but I don't want to be disrespectful to the thousands of people in Atlanta for whom that is not the case. In case you haven't heard, it was/is a mess there. As in...it's 11:20 on Wednesday and people are still stuck in YESTERDAY'S after-work (which began about 1:00 p.m. for most folks/schools) traffic jams. It's crazy. Check out the Atlanta paper online or basically any major news outlet...it's insanity. Kids and teachers stuck overnight at schools. Friends of mine stuck on interstates for 12 hours, eventually just abandoning their cars when they ran out of gas and walking to stores/strangers' homes/churches to sleep. It is insanity. None of that happened in Athens, a far, far smaller city...but since we're so close to Atlanta, with many friends living there and through this...man. Just bizarre.

Yesterday at work, before a single flake of snow had fallen, we were discussing when to make 'the call' about closing work, etc. Some of us were joking about all of the school systems that had already canceled school...even when it was still 60 degrees outside. "No wonder everyone in the country makes fun of us!!!" we were commiserating. But our boss-man said something very wise and it's stuck with me: When you overreact [to the threat of severe weather], you get mocked. When you underreact, you get sued.

Pretty sure we all have a new appreciation for that truth now. Props to the people silly enough to cancel stuff way early and not have their people out stuck in the madness overnight.

Anyway!! With all due respect to the people that are NOT enjoying this Snowpocalypse...it's been pretty great for me.

I spent the morning at work compulsively running to windows (and out doors) to see if it had started snowing yet. Finally finally fiiiinally, around noon, it started. Matt and I ate a quick lunch and then decided to take a 'snow walk' to a coffee shop a few blocks away. Since we had no idea whether the snow would actually stick or not, we wanted to at least enjoy it while we could.

It was so fun with the flurries gently swirling around us!! We could see the flakes in the air and on our dark coats, but nothing was sticking. We tried to take pictures anyway...

...annnnnd you can't see anything. But I promise it was snowing. I wouldn't lie about such a monumental thing.

Shortly after this failed snow photo shoot, it started really coming down and sticking. My work decided to let us leave at 2:00. This was awesome, except that Matt's work WASN'T letting them leave early...and we only had one car. Very thankfully, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came to the rescue by volunteering to come fetch me and drive me home. I was SUPER happy about that, since sitting in the lobby of Matt's bank seemed like a really boring way to spend 3 hours of a snow day. (My other option was going to be having my coworker/friend drop me off at the gym and waiting out the time there. Three hours at the gym. Sounds great!!! Or not.) 

I got home around 3 and spent the afternoon monitoring the snow progress, watching Lola 'discover' the snow, and taking selfies with the snow to send to Matt, who was stuck in jail work and obviously needed to be updated about life on the outside.

Look at the snow progress!!

Matt eventually got to leave work and come home-- thankfully, the roads were still totally fine and he got home without any problems. Once he got home, we came to the scary realization that our supply of Adult Beverages was running low, which is obviously an unacceptable situation under these conditions. We took a quick trip up the street to replenish our supplies and admire the snowy landscape.

Those poor cows looked so cold!!! You should know that approximately 200 yards away from that tree they're all huddled under is a big huge open barn. One cow managed to think things through and go stand in the dry, presumably warmer barn. The rest of them...bless their hearts. It must suck to be not smart.

We made it back home and settled in for the night with plenty of snacks, a fire, and Netflix.

Lola knows what's up. She'd be the smart cow in the barn.

Around 8:00 I received the happy news that my work was canceled for today. We went to bed hoping that Matt would receive similar news in the morning. Around 7:00 a.m., he did. He didn't have to report til noon! There are two ways to respond to the news that you don't have to go in to work until late:

A) Yay, we can sleep in!
B) Yay, we can play in the snow!

Matt goes with A. I'm a B. 

Unfortunately for Matt, I'm also kind of a big jerk. And I'm easily entertained. And I like pranks. Therefore, this happened:




Please don't judge the tiny bit of snow I managed to grab. First of all, it was cold. Who knew. Secondly, I was having to hold/record with my phone in the other hand, PLUS open doors...and finally, I really didn't want to make a huge mess that I'd have to clean up. Or like...actually make Matt really, really mad. :) 

Luckily, even after my 'mean and terrible' prank, as Matt called it, we managed to have a great morning. Coffee and waffles fueled us for a lovely walk around our neighborhood. We sported the traditional snow gear of native Georgians: All The Clothes In Your Closet At Once.

Lola wasn't big on posing for the camera. Silly dog.

You might think that the most exciting thing we saw on our walk around the neighborhood would have been snow. Or ice. Or perhaps children sledding (on pool floats and trashcan lids, of course. Don't nobody actually own sleds).

You would be wrong.

Exactly my thoughts. Of course there are Halloweenish creepy dentures on the street in January. Welcome to the sticks.

Matt just arrived safely at work-- he said that the roads between our small town and Athens were 'treacherous' but roads in Athens are fine. So he'll be working while I'm holding down the couch and watching my snow attack video on repeat a couple dozen more times. I hope that you are all managing to stay safe and warm, and I highly recommend you take advantage of any opportunity to sneak attack your loved ones with indoor snowballs. It's as awesome as you are probably imagining it is.