On Friday Ithaca experienced an ice storm. Cornell very helpfully sent out an email saying that the university was not closing, but that conditions were really, really, really bad. Thank you, my dear university, for putting the onus on your staff to decide whether or not they should risk breaking their necks! I spend two minutes trying to get out of the driveway, but then realized I couldn’t even walk up it without crampons or a pickaxe or something. Unable to go up the hill, I did, however, go down it several hours later when the temperature had risen and I thought it safe to drive to Boston. Although I think was reasonably safe, it wasn’t the easiest driving I’ve ever done. Sleet, rain, wind, slush, and East Coast traffic kept me very, very alert for the duration of the drive. Oh yes, and I’ve never driven long-distance, much less on the East Coast, by myself before. It was a day for new experiences.
But once there, Sarah, Lisa, and I made sure to live up the we’re-back-in-college-and-full-of-giggles atmosphere. We shopped, we ate, we stayed up late, and we cooked our own pasta with homemade sauce (full of hamburger–Lisa was trying to make up for my largely-vegetarian Ithaca life) before indulging in some cupcake-baking later that evening. Lisa now has many incriminating pictures of all three of us licking spoons full of frosting and cupcake batter. I’m sure Boston is lovely, but my experience of it is overshadowed by the time I spent in good talks with close college friends. As I’m sure you’ve picked up, we had a good time. And now I’m trying to break myself of the habit of waking up and thinking, “Hmm, what kind of sugar can I eat to start out my day?”
Now I’m back home and currently stealing time from a very busy week to write this post. But I just have to last three more days without sufficient sleep before Thursday and my mom arrive and I can take the tempo down to something a bit more reasonable.
Erin
Alan Schmierer