TGIF...

Yesterday was all sorts of blah.  

Those pesky weather-folk were predicting snow for Thursday like two weeks ago.  Dislike.  As Thursday approached, they got all hyped up on their weather ego trip (because, ya know, they hold all the power about informing us plebes about the impending doom that is snow.)  I was just certain that it wasn't going to be that bad, that we'd get an inch, no biggie.  

All the women in my office yesterday were in a tizzy and practically started rumors about the end coming.  It didn't, just fyi.  About a third of my coworkers live west of Nashville where the storm would blow in first.  They all left work around 1-2 and I thought they were bat-shit crazy.  I was confident that the snow wouldn't come until about 5 o'clock, when I would be safely in my living room preparing my brain for Jeopardy at 6.  

Come around 3 the snow started.  It wasn't sticking, so I didn't fret.  But I was really bored at work, so I decided to leave work at 4 "because I was worried about the dangerous conditions."  I was scheduled to have dinner with my friend Nan, and I was going to go shopping beforehand.  

My commute is typically 30-35 minutes on a good day.  I don't even really know how to stress how miserable my drive home was if you don't know Nashville, but I work in this area north of downtown called Metro Center.  There's lots of offices in this area.  It took me 20 minutes just to get out of Metro Center.  Almost immediately upon getting on the interstate, it splits to go 40-W toward Memphis or 65-S/24-E toward Knoxville/Chattanooga/Huntsville.  After the split, the first exit is Charlotte.  It took me another 20 minutes just to get to Charlotte.  It was then that I exited the interstate.  I think this was still the best decision.   The interstates were an effing parking lot.  Evidently every other single person who works in Nashville had the same idea to leave at 4 as I did.  

So I started moving a bit once I got past all the interstate junk, but then made the wise decision not to take my short-cut home because I was afraid that it not being a main road would mean it had iced over already.  So instead, I took a main road through town and sat through most lights a minimum of 10 times each.  It was so frustrating.  

I risked my life to go up the hill shortcut I take home because I couldn't stand to sit in another 30 minutes of traffic.  Total commute time: 2 hours.  I was in such a foul mood.  

I have implemented this new goal in my life where I don't drink during the week (there are many reasons for this, not relevant to this story) but my drive was so gd miserable that I couldn't resist.  The martini wasn't as good as what M makes, but I made it strong and it did the trick.  

M left work at 5:15, but his dad has the flu so he had to go to Home Depot to buy ice melt and go to his grandparents to salt their extremely hilly driveway so their helper could come and go.  He got home around 7 and we started dinner.

Things improved after this.  I didn't really eat lunch because nothing sounded appetizing, so I was starving.  We had delicious chicken caesar salads.  I had just put some chocolate chip cookies in the oven when M suggested we go sledding.  I was in a rather grumpy mood, but could tell he was annoyed by my mood and really wanted to sled, so I bundled up (because anything below 40 degrees is too cold for me and it was like 18) and we walked to the end of our street.  

The past few snows have been just that.  Not too icy with lots of snow.  Because it was so cold yesterday, the roads froze pretty well and we didn't get that much snow.  It was the best sledding.  Usually we make it down the hill and stop.  This time we made it down the hill and halfway down the street.  It was so much fun.

We thought we'd be in the clear traffic wise, but there were crazies who were just barreling on down the frozen road and up the frozen hill.  And the majority didn't have 4-wheel drive.  People are nutso.

After sledding we came home and I made Peppermint Patties while M salted/shoveled the driveway and walk.  

Peppermint Patties=hot chocolate (I use milk instead of water) and peppermint schnapps!  Delicious.

When he finished we had our warm drinks and cookies while we watched Dexter and Lie to Me.  The latter part of the night made up for the shitty drive home.

We decided we needed to get to bed, so I went in the bathroom to get ready.  I took out my pearl earrings that M gave me and dropped one of them down the drain.  I was upset, but M took apart the sink to get it out.  It stank so badly.  Once we got rid of the smell, M went to take out his contacts and dropped his bottle of lens solution on his trashcan lid and dented it.  Evidently we were pressing our luck with the night being good.

I'm so glad it's almost the weekend.  I don't know how much more of this week I could take.

Hope you have a great and relaxing weekend!