Open Thread: Snow Day!

Hello feathered friends, I come to you from inside my bedroom where I am wearing a sweater from Old Navy and sweatpants with my tiny space heater turned on because there’s ~2 feet of snow outside already and THE HEAT IN MY  HOUSE IS BROKEN. On my way home from work – a trip that should take 40 minutes but today took 2 hours – I saw a really unfortunate city employee with a plastic shopping bag wrapped around his head because he presumably had no hat. I haven’t been able to feel my feet in an hour and a half. I am thankful that I have a shamefully full-to-bursting drawer of legumes to subsist on because there is NO way I am leaving again to go to the store. My housemates and I debated going out to take shelter in a cafe until our pathologically inept landlord gets some mysterious “friend” named “Chuck” over here to fix the godd*mn heat, but we ultimately elected to freeze because at this point nothing can induce us to go outside again. Probably we will end up setting our belongings on fire inside a trash can, a la Rent, and playing Settlers of Cataan until we die and/or help arrives.

Anyways, the East coast is getting a lot of snow, huh? How are you dealing?


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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

176 Comments

  1. ugh, we have about a foot here already! (mid-missouri) and it’s snowing like crazy. ugh. my girlfriend is at work and will be staying the night (she works in a hospital, so no snow days for her. . .) So, i’m alone with my doggie and am watching a documentary called “before Stonewall” on netflix. fun times. :)

  2. I feel like a dick making this the first (or other early) comment, but here in Sydney we’re having the opposite weather pattern. The city’s supposed to get to 33C today (around 91F), but it will probably be hotter where I work/live.

    I dream of snow right now!

  3. already 1/2 inch of ice in Indpls from round 1 – round 2 just started and already added a good 1/4 inch of sleet on top! weeeeee…. got the fireplace cranked! now who’s got a bear skin rug???

  4. I’ve already had half a day off because my dad told me to come home early, and we have a guaranteed snow day tomorrow! :D Everything’s falling vertically, it’s fantastic.

    The radio keeps promising Thundersnow. I demand Thundersnow. I want it to be my new superhero name. I want Zeus to crack the sky open, roar, and then release the Thundersnow. I am ready.

  5. Reporting in from southern Wisconsin, where our blizzard started last night but is slated to get far worse overnight today. Couple of feet expected, I think.

    Days like these are excellent reminders of how damn lucky I am to work from home, is all I’m sayin’.

  6. We have had SIXTY INCHES of snow in Minneapolis this winter and March is the snowiest month of the year. All the streets are basically single lanes now and there is nowhere to park and I spend all of my free time worrying about the ice dam on my roof that is growing and morphing like some sort of roof glacier threatening to change the landscape of life as we know it or cause a leak in the roof – whatever.

  7. i moved from the deep south to indiana in august, so this is my first official snow day, ever. i must say, having the day off is quite nice. my level of productivity today has proven my theory that i’d be a much better student if i didn’t have to go to class all the freaking time.

    obvi i’m hoping for tomorrow off too.

  8. I’m in Chicago where it has been snowing horizontally for about 2 hours now. Major universities (Columbia, DePaul) that never close started cancelling classes around noon today. And the wind has been making waves crash over the beaches and onto Lake Shore Drive, so that’s a mess (from what I understand, I’m not about to go see…). The plastic on my living room windows is bowing/shaking like mad. And I hear a lot of sirens. My roommate accidentally set a dishtowel on fire earlier, I had to remind her that we are not *yet* to the point of burning things to stay alive…

    • ugh, me too. my lady is at work. (working in hospitals is stupid, even if she does look hot when she comes home with her chef’s coat on. . .) so it’s just me and the dog, and she’ll be staying the night at work. ugh!

  9. NWI-Chicago area here…

    I’m already bored with this blizzard. Crazy wind/white out like conditions that I’ve been watching out my window while watching SVU all afternoon.

    Tonight’s dog walk should be real interesting though, as my littlest guy seems to not care how windy it is and loves the snow.

  10. sadly, no days off for me at the hospital. however, this funny conversation occurred between me and my brother today via text message (we’re both med student nerds):

    Me: I had a patient today with horrible Alzheimer’s…hope that never happens to me :(
    Bro: Pretty sure being gay is a risk factor
    Me: I heard eating Chick fil A causes Alzheimer’s
    Bro: That’s gay propaganda
    Me: You’re gay propaganda

    we have an ongoing joke about Chick fil A not serving gay people and he knows how I feel about the store anyway but he likes eating there so we tease each other.

  11. It’s windy as fuck in Chicago… Northwestern just sent all the students an email warning us to stay away from the lake because there are supposed to be 20-foot waves. Not a lot of snow yet, but I’m very happy to be sitting in my apartment making a vat of soup and watching Buffy.

  12. I got up for my 9am, fully expecting Boston College to have cancelled my classes for the day. Nope! The trudge to campus was unbelievable. I was almost disappointed that nobody was waiting at the front gates to congratulate me and give me a cup of hot chocolate.

  13. We’re steadily moving toward 8-12 inches here in Eastern Kansas. Classes were cancelled for today and they just sent out the word that they’re cancelled tomorrow too (-18 degree wind chill? no thanks!).

    Honestly, though? I’m so bored. I tried to get people to have a snow party out in the blizzard, but they weren’t having it. :( I’m by myself in an apartment so I guess this gives me a good chance to finally just finish Earthbound or something.

  14. i have spent the first 27 years of my life snowed in in various places including new york city, ohio, michigan and northern michigan. but then i moved to california and i rode my bike just now and it was so sunny and nice. you guys should move here!

    i just wanted to say that kitten photo is perfect

  15. ok fellow homogay-tastic ladies (and everyone else) my project for the rest of this time spent snowed in alone is to learn about gay history because i am tragically un-informed. any suggestions of online resources would be appreciated. (i obviously can’t get to a library in this shit. :P)

  16. it hasn’t started snowing yet in toronto but if i believe the TV i only have a few hours left before iceagefourfeaturingrayromano and should stock up on essentials.

    wine- check.
    cigarettes – check.

    praying 4 uni to shut down tomorrow because i don’t want to write a test. am not studying because there is no point, right?

    we’ll get through this.

  17. You guys discussing walking your dogs in the snow is a pleasant reminder why I moved to Iowa over Chicago. I may never date again (or even meet another queer girl), but I could afford a place with a fenced yard. I’ll never walk the dogs in the snow again.

  18. Speaking from Maine, the great north where we only have 3 inches so far, it’s cold and we are supposed to get two feet and all of my professors are holding class tomorrow. I can’t walk on slippery, shifty things due to excruciating tendinitis.

    So, on the couch with a blank, drinking my fifth(!) cup of tea. (Peachberry Jasmine)

  19. I’m jealous. We never get snow days in Canada, in my whole life (23 years) I have had only one snow day. A few weeks ago we had a stretch of -35 C days (that’s -31 F for you Americans), and nothing got cancelled.

  20. I probably won’t be able to leave the house until Thursday. We’ve gotten over 15 inches so far, with more to come overnight. It’s so bad, they’ve actually closed the interstate (I-70) between St. Louis and Kansas City.

  21. this is a historical day! my place of work shut down operations! they NEVER do that! i’m in the west suburbs of chicago (i think it’s considered a suburb). anywho, i have two bottles of wine, some peta chips and hummus, and all the internet access i need to download and watch anything i want!!! and V comes on tonight, i get to watch it at home for once!!! all i need a cuddle buddy! it’s getting crazy outside, some day after tomorrow type stuff lol!

  22. Just ice for me so far. We keep missing the snow. Not that I’m complaining. We got enough last year. It did make for some funny puppy videos, though. I’m watching a show on child trafficking and sacrifices. So that’s fun.

  23. UW-Madison just cancelled classes for tomorrow, which basically never happens. We’re supposed to get 12-18 inches of snow and it’s blizzarding and the wind is crazy and it’s not even as bad as in other places. But I’ll support anything that lets me lay around in sweatpants listening to Tegan and Sara and writing a paper for my LGBTQ Studies class. And reading AS.

  24. I mean, I’m from Syracuse, NY where it snows SO MUCH that like, no blizzards ever really bother me too much.

    What does bother me is that I have to go dig out my car eventually, and it’s annoying because the plows will have completely covered it by then.

    On the bright side, classes for tomorrow are already canceled.

    The thing that worries me the most though is that where I am right now (New Paltz, NY) is right in the middle of the big ice warning area, and I feel like a power outage in a dorm would suck so many balls it’s ridiculous.

    In the mean time, I’m going to continue my viewing of the BBC Pride and Prejudice because after seeing the King’s Speech *twice* I’m on a huge Colin firth kick.

  25. I’m in St. John’s, Newfoundland (anyone else?). The grad school lifestyle keeps me mostly tied indoors on my computer anyways, but after a lovely hike through the snow last night, I went ripping around my empty neighbourhood on my mountain bike with studded tires. I love winter cycling, especially when the cars can’t handle it!

  26. snow day evening:
    -waching Pretty Little Liars on hulu
    -eating
    -taking a nap to Rufus Wainwright music
    -pretending that my lamp is SAD light therapy (it isn’t)

    now I am going to go find all the friends who live in my building

      • I’m glad I’m not the only one coming so late to the Buffy party!
        I have a serious love for Torchwood, except the last season just killed me.
        Now they are moving it to America to die a slow death, probs.
        British TV is tops.

          • It’s more about the people and the town than it is about the football. I say give it a shot…at least watch the first episode. I don’t like football at all but I absolutely loved the show.

          • I am a huge Buffy and Torchwood fan, I watch all the genre TV, and also I come from a country where a) no-one plays that stupid sport and b) we think it’s hilarious that you guys have to put on all that padding to play rugby, but, for real, Friday Night Lights is probably the best television I’ve ever seen (not to overhype it or anything). It’s not really about the football at all – my whole family adores it, from my super-butch brother and his shopaholic girlfriend to dorky English major SF fan me. And also my parents. Honestly, give it a go.

  27. UK here: it’s stupid o’clock but I can’t sleep so amusing myself with your snow days stories. We had ours over a month ago and I’m not hoping for a repeat. Its the after effects I hate. Black ice, cavenous potholes…
    Snow, much like excess weight, appears without much warning, is tolerable for a while but a bitch to get rid of!
    Stay warm, safe and inside snowbie’s!

  28. I’m in Colorado. Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees and sunny, today it has been icy and about -10 with the wind chill. Just got home from having happy hour drinks and realized I only have 2 beers and no alcohol mixers. Going to brave the cold to get more beer. Why waste a good buzz when there’s nothing to do but stay in and drink!

  29. That’s why I moved from Canada to Hong Kong. Of course, we never have snowy days there. 11°C. Yaaaah!!! BUT SOMEHOW MY CO-WORKERS COME TO OFFICE WEARING WOOL JACKETS AND HATS AS IF IT IS -1°C. The excuse is that they rather show up with some “fancy” clothes and don’t care much about sweating out.
    Anyway, I surely miss the fun of skiing with friends. Now poor with small pocket of money, I can’t afford ski vacation to Japan/Europe/America. THAT’S WHY I WANT A GIRLFRIEND WHO LOVES ME ENOUGH TO U-HAURL TO CANADA.

  30. Its snowing haaardcore in central Iowa. School got out early today and is already canceled for tomorrow, plus I didn’t have to go into work today because its gonna be D E A D anyway. All of this was a faaaab time to get the flu…

  31. I live in Minnesota, and we’ve already had a crazy amount of snow this winter already. We got more yesterday and today, and since none of it has melted since November, we have about 60 inches of snow in most places. Yeah, read that again. 60 inches is 5 feet. I live in the middle of the city, so the buildings block some of it, but they had to put lots of the snow in trucks and cart it off to somewhere else. I can’t remember anything but snow at this point.

  32. whether in johannesburg is something along the lines of sydney with a few drops of rain and loads of thunder and lighting. This is good day for hanging out inside and watching tv! Ive also never seen real snow before, I even went to the Uk in winter but everywhere i went the snow didnt show up and only arrived after I left! Cant say I didnt try though!

  33. I’m actually quite enjoying the snow. As someone from Western Australian who rarely sees the temperature drop below 0C during winter this is nice for a change.

    second day with no classes!!\o/

  34. Checking in from Boston, where the 2-plus feet of accumulated snow is currently receiving a niiice coating of ice. I’m just mad at Winter at this point, I mean, there is nowhere to put the snow!

    One of my dogs loves the snow and he happily flops around the yard and sticks his face in snowbanks. My other dog is very dramatic and hates this weather, so he stands in the little path I shoveled for him and shivers and refuses to pee. He wears a jacket. Don’t judge!

  35. The snow just started a few hours ago here (eastern NS). The entire city has basically shut down, but I work in the hospital so unfortunately snow days are a thing of the past for me. Digging out my car tomorrow morning will be wonderfullllll. :/

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