wintery precipitation, come and get us!

In case you live under a rock, or in the event that your Facebook newsfeed isn't filled with residents of the Southern United States, I feel compelled to inform you that it is probably going to snow today.

CUE PANICKED EXCITEMENT ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION!!!!!

I feel sad for people who have never lived and experienced the palpable excitement that permeates the air of Georgia when there are snowflakes in the forecast. It's not just kids and teachers. It's this magically widespread, all-encompassing sense of anticipation, fear, and hope. We may be horribly unprepared for frozen precipitation, but we love to see it coming just the same.

And would you just look at that beautiful map?? By all accounts, if my sources can be trusted and the blue means ice (??? I think???) and the pinkish stuff off to the west indicates snow...well, the Athens area just may see as many as 14 flakes of the white stuff today.

11:15 a.m. edit: Obviously I am dumb and none of you bothered to correct me, but the BLUE is snow and the PINK is ice/mix. I will just say that we see these two colors so incredibly infrequently on our weather maps that it's understandable that I wouldn't even know what they represented. Also, may as well add that we still haven't seen a flake yet. Over and out.

VICTORY IS OURS!!!!

And that means, naturally, life as we know it will cease to exist. All of the local school systems are all already closed or have announced noon closures. I'm hoping that luck will trickle over to my workplace and I'll find myself back home to settle in by the fire by early afternoon. And that means that instead of blogging this morning (or rather...instead of blogging for as long as I normally do), I'm going to actually get some work stuff done. You know. Just in case.

[Rabbit trail: I'm not sure if I've explained this before, but I've had some folks ask, so may as well clarify now...Matt and I carpool to work, since our buildings are literally 25 feet apart from each other. We both get off at 5, but he has to start work at 8. My office doesn't open til 9. That means I get to work an hour early every day with time to kill. 98% of the time, as you've probably observed, I kill the time with blogging. In the event that I just don't feel like it, I've been known to kill the time reading or napping on the floor of my office. So if you've had the question how does Erika have the time to blog every single morning??? burning deep in your soul...now you know.]

But before I go, I'd be remiss if I didn't disgust you with share a story I heard on NPR this morning. I mean, since I am the de facto source of all health-and-beauty information for many of you...this is obviously news you need to know about.

Crest is about to release some new toothpaste flavors. Get ready.

Source

And uh...yeah. You read it right. Mint chocolate trek.

Mind-blowingly awesome packaging aside, that is so gross I want to die.

And I looooooove mint chocolate chip cream. And Thin Mints. And basically any dessert thing that combines mint and chocolate. So you'd think I'd be their target market here. Except NO THAT IS DISGUSTING. Ew. Just stop.

Other new flavors they're releasing include Vanilla Mint Spark and Lime Spearmint Zest. LIME???? I have no words. Go home, Crest, you're drunk.

The NPR host dude made a comment about 'what's next, after-dinner-drinks flavored toothpaste?' Matt and I cracked up. We're holding out for the Brandy and Cigars flavor. Now that's a delightful combination I want to shove in my mouth before I go to sleep.

Anyway. Food (or flavor, anyway) for thought. Have a happy and hopefully snowy (if you're in the South...my regrets to all of you being buried for the 200th consecutive day up north) day!