My back is killing me. My arm muscles hate me. Best to not even mention my shoulders. I think even my hair hurts. Shovelling twenty fucking inches of snow will do that to you. Typing this? Hurts. I have a blister on the palm of my hand from shovelling. But I should backtrack, since I haven't written a thing in... what, over a month? Bad journaller, no cookie for me.
So. Thanksgiving was very, very good. I got to spend a couple of extra days with my boyfriend, which is always a nice thing. I generally only see him over the weekend, so getting to spend Wednesday-Sunday with him made me very happy. We spent Thanksgiving day at his parents' house, eating far too much, and having a lovely, relaxing day. Friday, I dragged him out into the shopping insanity so I could buy yarn for a Christmas present -- his one consolation was the Krispy Kreme place right near the craft store. The rest of the weekend was spent loafing and watching movies and such.
Work is very busy. I joined a new committee, because I am insane, but it's actually interesting so far. We're looking to revise the Libraries' overdue fine policy. I know, it sounds dull, but I like the other people on the committee, and I think it's turn out to be a good process.
So. This weekend. Lots of snow. I was supposed to work yesterday, but I kept looking at the Weather Channel's website, and getting a knot of worry in my stomach. I made Jeff come into town Friday, because I didn't want him driving in the storm, whether I worked Saturday or not. I talked to my boss, and pointed out that the storm would be at its worst right when I would be leaving work. A coworker, and good friend, ended up taking my shift for me -- I felt bad, because she worked last weekend, but I didn't think my trying to get home from Cambridge would be a good idea at all. I bought her a bag full of chocolate as a thank-you present. And in hindsight, I'm glad I listened to my gut. The snow started Friday night, and by morning, we were getting pretty well buried. By 6 p.m. Saturday, which is when I would have been closing the library and heading for home, it was a complete white-out here. We couldn't even see the houses across the street. The power went out briefly, for just two or three minutes -- long enough to make me take the flashlight with me every time I needed to go to the bathroom. Jeff and I had shopped the night before, so we had plenty of food for the weekend. (The grocery store was mobbed. There was almost no bottled water, and the bread aisle was picked clean. We giggled a lot at the woman waiting to check out near us who went on at length about how this was all a product of a conspirancy between the weather people and the supermarkets. I noted that her cart was filled with bread, milk, eggs, and bottled water. Yeah.) At around 10 last night, my roommate and his girlfriend went out to play in the snow -- they made snow angels and flung each other into snowbanks, while we laughed at them through the windows. When I got up this morning, it looked like they'd never set foot in the yard. The snow was drifted smooth right up to the windowsills. The cars were just white mounds in the driveway. I ate breakfast while everyone else was asleep, thinking about the shovelling we'd have to do. Jeff got up a little after I did, and my roommate came down a short while later. He bundled up and shovelled a path through the yard to the driveway. I got dresses and put my contacts in, and went out to try to excavate Jeff's car. My roommate's girlfriend was already outside helping, and Jeff came out shortly after I got started. Our neighbor had an extra shovel -- I wiped out in the back yard trying to get it. The snow was well past my knees, and as I slogged through the yard, my foot slipped. I figured I'd do less damage to myself if I just fell, so I flopped back into the snow, made a sloppy snow angel, then dragged myself up to get the shovel. My roommate turned on his car radio, and we spent an hour and a half shovelling like mad. It was sort of fun -- a lot of the neighbors were out, swapping jokes and lending extra shovels. People all up and down the street were out shovelling. Fun... aside from the backbreaking labor, of course. 20 inches of snow is heavy! And we were running out of places to put it, and trying to toss the shovel-fulls onto the already huge piles was hard. But hey, I needed the exercise, the four opf us got it done while laughing and bonding... it could have been worse. Last blizzard, I shovelled alone. That sucked. Once we were done, I took a quick shower -- hot water on numb toes burns! -- and put on my flannel pajamas. Jeff took a shower, then we made lunch, and curled up happily on the couch with mugs of cocoa and bad daytime TV.
Jeff also gave me one of my Christmas presents early -- he'd sent me an email telling me he was bringing it, as it would come in handy this weekend. It turned out to be a second controller for my Playstation (shiny pretty transparent blue!) so we played many, many hours of Crash Team Racing. I whomped his ass for all but two or three races -- the last one we played, he thoroughly trounced me. It was good fun. And now I have sore thumbs.
Jeff is now on his way home -- I'm taping Angels in America on HBO and waiting for a message telling me he got home safe. I love that boy. I can't think of anyone I'd rather be snowed in with. And now, I will miss him like crazy until next weekend.