Hibernation is for Bears

This winter has felt so brutal and never-ending that we have just wanted to curl up and sleep these months away. Although we winter-weary New Yorkers are preparing to endure another snow storm tomorrow, as the calendar turns to March, I’m finally beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. My coworkers and I are so over commuting in rain, sleet, snow, or just freezing temperatures that the dry erase board that we typically use for inspirational quotes has been temporarily converted to display a days ‘til spring countdown. Nineteen days and counting! So with a glimmer of hope that warmer days are on their way, this blog can come out of hibernation.  

Winter in NYC isn’t all bad; in fact it’s some New Yorkers’ favorite season. All the activities associated with the holidays like visiting the Rockefeller Center tree, holiday markets, and the department store window displays come to mind. After the holidays come to an end and the ball drops in Times Square, there’s still plenty to do like ice skating, walks through parts of the City that would otherwise be flooded with tourists at any other time of year, or a long weekend escape to the mountains.     

We spent last weekend in a cabin in the Catskills with about twelve friends from our church life group.  (Once we got close to the cabin, we realized it was very close to the Bed & Breakfast Jen and I stayed in for our one-year anniversary.) It was everything you would want a mountain cabin to be: warm and rustic, equipped with a fireplace, and with very picturesque views of the woods and mountains. It was a bit outdated (the bathroom was carpeted and looked like it was straight out of Anchor Man) but it was all part of the charm.  The trip was a lot of fun and the perfect winter escape from the City. Don’t get me wrong, it was cold, but comfortable enough for long walks on the mountain roads and sledding down the steep hill in the back.  We didn’t do much other than relax and enjoy nature (I’m not complaining) except play a few rousing rounds of Magic Unicorn-a Charades-type game that includes one round of acting out under a blanket.  Pup also had a great time being outdoors and getting so much attention. She was so loved by everyone that she became somewhat of a weekend mascot. Note the group picture of Pup being lifted up in exaltation which was later titled “Pup as Simba.” Don’t worry, I was holding her safely and she actually seemed quite at ease, as if thinking “they finally get it.”

I’m looking forward to warmer weather so much that I have a quickly growing list on my phone titled Things I Want to Do in Spring. I will soon be able to sit outside comfortably, begin running in Prospect Park again, and just do more things in general. You can’t make your dreams come true if you don’t get out of bed first, right?

Nemo Found Us

I’m writing today from of our warm bedroom with a view of a very wet, snowy, grey NYC landscape. Today is a “flex Friday” off from work for Jen and I certainly have plenty of studying to do so we’re spending the day defying the weather by staying indoors. From what we’re hearing the weather will soon be getting even more wintery. Nemo, as it’s being called, is about to take a big white number two on the North East.

We honestly don’t know what we can expect to see in the next 24 hours. Newscasters themselves have been jokingly giving predictions of “2-30 inches.” We both got very alarming emergency alerts on our phones yesterday requesting that we prepare for the storm and limit travel. The mayor’s office has seemed to over-prepare for every snow storm since the record breaking blizzard that caught them off guard two years ago. That was a mess! The city has 250,000 tons of salt being spread. It’s a good thing, considering I just read on Twitter that we have 6,300 street miles to plow if the snow fall is heavy enough. It’s equivalent to plowing from NY to L.A., twice! Jen and I don’t typically get too hyped up and tend to side with the more conservative weathermen that are predicting less than six inches. There’s also the fact that this storm shares its name with a talking, crippled clownfish from a Disney/Pixar movie that makes it hard to take seriously. We found NEMO! You can’t always judge a storm by its name though. My Aunt Sandy is a lovely person, but Hurricane (Super Storm!) Sandy was a b*tch.

Weather permitting, we’ll go to White Plains tomorrow for Jen’s Grandma’s 83^rd birthday luncheon. It’s been a while since we’ve eaten at The Cheesecake Factory, one of our all time favs, so we’re hoping it’s a go.

No matter what this storm entails, one thing you can be sure of in this city is stupidity. Someone will decide to go for a drive through the snow with their kids, get stuck, and blame the city when they almost freeze to death. There will be people scraping the bare sidewalks with their shovels at the first sign of flurries and calling it plowing. And someone will give their gasoline powered generator a precautionary test run…indoors

P.S. Something about a commercial I saw recently filmed entirely in the city, inspired me. I might be getting the Sony Handycam out again to do some filming and play with some more effects in my video editor. So look for that, hopefully next week!