Thursday, November 22, 2007

let it snow let it snow let it snow

Growing up I had a love hate relationship with snow, errr... rather with snow days.
Snow-I liked. You could make all sorts of cool things with it. Forts, snowmen, snowballs, toilets. A guy in grade six made a life sized toilet out of snow one year, I spent the next three winters at home trying to recreate it.... to no avail. Then one year my cousin showed me what you could do with food colouring in a spray bottle.... We built a giant rat and made it look like it was decapitated and bleeding all over the lawn... then went and "shot" all the snowmen in her neighbourhood.
It was more the "SNOW DAY" that I wasn't the biggest fan of...
My parents owned and ran a local business. Because of this, snow days didn't happen in our house- instead, we'd get a ride to school with mom. No matter the weather. This left my sister and I and the 12-15 students within walking distance stuck at school.
Here's where the love-hate kicked in, my nerdly-art side loved it. I always volunteered to clean the art cupboard on snow days. Teachers didn't actually teach anything to the 12-15 kids in the school, we watched movies, caught up on reading, listened to music, and changed the display boards. The hate came in- in the act of having to get dressed, in having to go when no one else was there, in having to make small talk with the teachers. That... I did not love.

Once in high school, I started to get snow days. Bussed into another town, if the weather was bad, I'd sit beside the radio in the morning chanting my bus number under my breath (come on 387, come on 387!) praying to hear that Milford had cancelled his route... But Milly was a tough old coot, and the cancels were few and far between.

Fast forward to working life... I've held a job now since graduation that doesn't allow for snow days. The entire town might be in lock-down in a blizzard, but a group home still needs staffing.

This morning I woke to the tiny ping of ice pellets hitting the windows... windows coated in ice, looking out at trees coated in ice. And I sighed.
Until I remembered something.... I work in an office now.

ring ring riiiiiiing

me:: uh... hello?
boss:: good morning, just calling to let you know we're not opening the office today, please activate your calling list.
me:: uh.... (then with more enthusiasm than I should have...... to my boss)
All RIIIIIGHT!

1 comment:

T said...

lucky...no such thing as a snow day when you drive an SUV...