Thursday, December 27, 2007
post-xmas haze
I've done a whole lot of nothing since xmas day. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I did get my personal website (for classes and academicish projects) back online. And I baked some cookies from a mix I got as a present (mmmm!) I bookmarked some recipes to try, and I went to the grocery store.
But really I just feel like I've been sleeping all the time. I've done a lot of that...a cross between making up the deficit from the fall semester and storing up sleep points for the spring semester. Also, since it's so foggy and dark all the time because of the snow clouds, my body thinks it's sleeping time at 4pm.
I was a very social person on xmaseve and xmasday. On xmaseve I stayed local and went with our department receptionist/office person and her husband and sister-in-law to her brother's house. Her brother and his wife have four kids between them, and my friend's parents were also there, so the grand total of people in the house was 12. It was not chaotic. Everyone ate their food (mmmm!) and opened their presents in an orderly fashion, and there were games afterward. A good time was had by all. Nice folks!
On xmas day I baked a cake and drove 110 miles to a little town that's a suburb of another little town. The directions were pretty funny: drive 15 miles and turn left, drive 80 miles and note the rest area, drive 20 more miles and look for a right turn, drive 10 miles and look for a cemetery then turn left into a "driveway." I was good up until the "driveway" part. You see, it wasn't so much a driveway as it was a left turn into a wheat field that eventually had a house on it. But I suppose that's longer to type than "driveway," isn't it? Oh well. I did miss the turn because I was debating whether or not that was actually a driveway, but she also said that if I hit town I had gone too far...I did, turned around, crossed my fingers, and turned into the "driveway." Success!
This time I was going to Michelle-my-school-chum's house (hi Michelle!). At this extravaganza were Michelle, her husband, their freaking adorable four kids, and both sets of grandparents...so that's what, 11 people? Yeah. Again, no chaos...just lots of good food. Who knew there were normal families out there?
And then it started to snow.
Although I was born and raised in Pennsylvania (where it snows), I don't recall ever driving in snow while I was there. Dad did that. I lived in Durham during the Great Blizzard of 1993, but I walked to work. When a friend and I decided to drive the entire length of the state of North Carolina in said blizzard, to visit some friends of ours in Asheville, he did the driving. And, of course, I spent the last 13 or so years in California. In other words, my personal snow driving experience was quite limited.
But I had to be home to do my 5am thing for work on Wednesday, so off I went. Only two inches of snow had fallen, and it wasn't snowing anymore, so I was optimistic. The only problem was that I didn't have a good feel for underlying ice, so I went slowly down the road...so slowly (35mph) that a few pickup trucks zoomed past me, impatient. Whatever.
Only three or four vehicles zoomed past me on the entire drive. From Washtucna to Colfax (50 miles) I was leading a caravan of three cars, all of which had drivers perfectly content to go 40-45mph insted of 65mph. If they knew that the leader of the pack (me) was driving a Mazda and was from California, they might not have wanted to follow...but it all worked out. It didn't get scary until Colfax, which is only 15 miles from Pullman. In Colfax, only a few cars had blazed a path on the roadway, and the snow started to come down again. Those last 15 miles were a little harrowing, but I made it. When I eventually turned onto my street, my car was the first one down it (it's not a well-traveled street), so it was kind of cool to make the tracks.
Then I went right to bed because I was exhausted. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing ever since.
But really I just feel like I've been sleeping all the time. I've done a lot of that...a cross between making up the deficit from the fall semester and storing up sleep points for the spring semester. Also, since it's so foggy and dark all the time because of the snow clouds, my body thinks it's sleeping time at 4pm.
I was a very social person on xmaseve and xmasday. On xmaseve I stayed local and went with our department receptionist/office person and her husband and sister-in-law to her brother's house. Her brother and his wife have four kids between them, and my friend's parents were also there, so the grand total of people in the house was 12. It was not chaotic. Everyone ate their food (mmmm!) and opened their presents in an orderly fashion, and there were games afterward. A good time was had by all. Nice folks!
On xmas day I baked a cake and drove 110 miles to a little town that's a suburb of another little town. The directions were pretty funny: drive 15 miles and turn left, drive 80 miles and note the rest area, drive 20 more miles and look for a right turn, drive 10 miles and look for a cemetery then turn left into a "driveway." I was good up until the "driveway" part. You see, it wasn't so much a driveway as it was a left turn into a wheat field that eventually had a house on it. But I suppose that's longer to type than "driveway," isn't it? Oh well. I did miss the turn because I was debating whether or not that was actually a driveway, but she also said that if I hit town I had gone too far...I did, turned around, crossed my fingers, and turned into the "driveway." Success!
This time I was going to Michelle-my-school-chum's house (hi Michelle!). At this extravaganza were Michelle, her husband, their freaking adorable four kids, and both sets of grandparents...so that's what, 11 people? Yeah. Again, no chaos...just lots of good food. Who knew there were normal families out there?
And then it started to snow.
Although I was born and raised in Pennsylvania (where it snows), I don't recall ever driving in snow while I was there. Dad did that. I lived in Durham during the Great Blizzard of 1993, but I walked to work. When a friend and I decided to drive the entire length of the state of North Carolina in said blizzard, to visit some friends of ours in Asheville, he did the driving. And, of course, I spent the last 13 or so years in California. In other words, my personal snow driving experience was quite limited.
But I had to be home to do my 5am thing for work on Wednesday, so off I went. Only two inches of snow had fallen, and it wasn't snowing anymore, so I was optimistic. The only problem was that I didn't have a good feel for underlying ice, so I went slowly down the road...so slowly (35mph) that a few pickup trucks zoomed past me, impatient. Whatever.
Only three or four vehicles zoomed past me on the entire drive. From Washtucna to Colfax (50 miles) I was leading a caravan of three cars, all of which had drivers perfectly content to go 40-45mph insted of 65mph. If they knew that the leader of the pack (me) was driving a Mazda and was from California, they might not have wanted to follow...but it all worked out. It didn't get scary until Colfax, which is only 15 miles from Pullman. In Colfax, only a few cars had blazed a path on the roadway, and the snow started to come down again. Those last 15 miles were a little harrowing, but I made it. When I eventually turned onto my street, my car was the first one down it (it's not a well-traveled street), so it was kind of cool to make the tracks.
Then I went right to bed because I was exhausted. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing ever since.
Labels: misc life