Baby It's Cold Outside

The snow moved in at about 3:15pm yesterday afternoon. We'd made plans to meet up with friends for happy hour onion rings at 4:30pm...on Capitol Hill. Not being a natural snow baby--Central California and the mild temps of the Willamette Valley mean encounters of only a few inches every few years--and having nothing even resembling boots in the Big Gay Refugee Center (if you have to ask, you likely don't want to know) I was hesitant to make the trek. What if the buses stopped and left me stranded on the hill? G is a search and rescue volunteer and he didn't want to leave the warmth of the apartment, so I figured that was a wise decision. M openly mocked us while donning several layers of clothing and left into the snowy world. Then R showed up and, after about 15 minutes, the two of us decided to brave the snowy gusts and possible eight inches of snow.



I'm so glad we did. We caught a bus headed up the hill fairly quickly, and met up with four others at Deluxe on Capitol Hill. After consuming a 9lb Porter and some sort of heavy wheat beer (wasn't really clear on that, but it was delicious) along with the necessary onion rings, we headed outside and proceeded to have the best snowball fight this side of eight years old. A passerby even shook his head in dismay at the 'kids'. M stuffed snow up my nose. R fought with a Washington Lottery sign (the sign won). L, gloveless, lobbed several harmless throws and numbed her hands. Ke took a ride in a shopping cart. J sweetly cleared strangers' cars to form snowballs. We all ended up soaked and resembling ancient Yetis, at which point we retired to Bill's and warmed up with hot toddys.

The evening ended with M, R and I dashing madly across the road and being lectured by a bus driver to not stop running if we were going to hold up her bus. I had a nice chat with R's mother and let her know that her son was in good care, after which we immediately left the bus, bypassed the 'street closed' signs and slid down Pine Street nearly into Pike's Place Market. Without sleds. Or trashcan lids. After a few more rolls in the snow, we were nearly frozen, so we headed back to the BGRC to give G some icy hugs and watch Invader Zim while sipping cocoa with rum.

Snow days are the best days.

Let it Snow? Baby Please Come Home

This was Seattle two days ago. A nice, peaceful blanket of snow. Now, however, we are apparently in the middle of SNOWMAGEDDON, although from what I can see the snow has already stopped. I'm huddled up on the twenty-third floor, and while we can still see the piers the rest of Puget Sound has been hidden for an hour. Traffic continues to flow down 99, but I'm assuming that will come to a near-halt soon. The forecast is for 3-8 inches of new snow by tomorrow morning, with the majority of it falling west of I-5, which is odd, as typically more snow falls on the eastside. Many areas are set to experience high winds, and, what worries me, the possibility of ice pellets and freezing rain.

I'm ok with the snow on the weekends, or snow as long as I have plenty of provisions. But I want to be able to fly home Sunday. So let it snow for a few more hours and then, please, let me get home for Christmas.