Snow Day #5

Last week, Dallas got hit with a lot of snow and ice. We had school on Monday, and then no school Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Four snow days that created a six-day weekend. It sounds lovely, but in reality I hated it, haha.

First of all, I was stuck at home. A lot of things were closed, none of my friends wanted (or could!) leave their houses, and I couldn't really leave my apartment either. I spent the four days reading, writing and watching TV. Three things I normally LOVE to do, but when it's all you have to do, it gets old after a while. (Who would have ever thought I'd get tired of reading?!?! Although I did read like five books over those four days, so...)

Winter Wonderland

The one time I tried leaving my apartment went a little like this: I bundle up and head out to the parking lot. With no gloves, my fingers instantly start to develop (very) minor frostbite. I have to avoid stepping on dog poo, because apparently due to the cold people in my apartment are too lazy to make sure their dogs use the potty on the grass... or at least pick up after them when they do it in front of the freaking entrance. I slip and slide to my car, blast the heat on defrost and realize that the six inches of snow piled onto my windshield were not going to melt anytime soon. So, I go back inside, grab a spatula and begin flinging snow off my car. It took 45 minutes and my hood and trunk were still covered in snow. But, since I could see, I begin my drive.

My trusty spatula

Slow progress  on my windshield

I get all the way to the stop light and disaster strikes. When the light turns green, my car won't move with a light tap on my accelerator. So I have to press harder, which instantly causes my car to fishtail. There's a car to my right and the curb to my left and I was positive I was going to hit one or both. My Nigerian in me came out instantly, "In the name of Jesus! In the name of Jesus!" Ha!

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you're facing death, but I must not have truly been facing death because I definitely did not see my favorite memories stream before my eyes.  All I could think was, "I don't want to die. Jesus don't let me die." It makes me laugh now, but at the time I was beyond terrified. I just couldn't get my car to stop swerving and every time another car passed me, I was positive that that would be the car I would hit to end it all.

Eventually, my car straightened out, and I instantly took the very next turn and headed home. Operation "Get Out Of The House And See People" was a total fail. Luckily all the snow had turned to slush by the next afternoon and I was able to go to work, hang out with friends, and volunteer over the weekend.

And I was SOOO happy to be back in school Monday morning (when I had my first evaluation, which I'll save for a different blog). And Tuesday.

And now that it's Wednesday, guess what? Another snow day! Haha. And the funny story to go along with this one is... I wake up at 7:15 and think, "Shoot, I'm going to be late!" My co-teacher had promised she'd text if school was cancelled and since I didn't get a text, I didn't even think to check the news or the district website. I just got dressed and ran outside, saw all the snow, rushed back inside and pulled on warmer pants and shoes, rushed back outside to turn my defrost on, ran back inside to get cups of cold water to pour on my windshield, used my credit card to scrap ice off my window and wipers, drove the 2 minutes to school, and saw... no cars. For a second I was like, "Um..." And then I thought, "Maybe we're just having a late start?" Eventually, I had the brilliant idea to check the website on my phone (Yay, smartphones!) and found the message that school was closed in the smallest type possible.

So now I'm home and just praying it's a one-day thing and we don't have another extended weekend.