Wintry Mix

So we've had a little bit of snow in Boston this winter.

Since December, we've had 70.1 inches of snow. For the record, that is 7 more inches than my height. It is also only 15" less than Shaq's height (as boston.com has been so great about documenting for us online). The average season sees about 41.8" in November - April, and the record-breaking '95/'96 season racked up 107.6 inches.

In other words -- I picked a hell of a time to move to Boston!

Today, despite many hopes and rumors to the contrary, was not a snow day for BU. It was for just about every other academic institution in this fair city, but not us (personally, I think it was because at 1 p.m. yesterday they made the call to close the school at 5 p.m. and cancel all night classes, and then it promptly stopped snowing at 4 p.m.). The photos above were taken during my morning commute to school (note the absence of any other forms of intelligent life).

I left about 10 minutes earlier than normal, just to make sure I had enough time to get to class. I boarded the T at Coolidge Corner, per usual, and claimed my bit of floor space. I was 5 minutes into a particularly trying level of Angry Birds, when I noticed we weren't moving. It seems that a train had stopped 4 stops ahead at St. Mary's and they were "trying to push it out of the way." After about 10 minutes or so, we crept to the next stop, waited a few minutes, then crept to Kent St. After a few more minutes stalled, our driver came back on the loud speaker to let us know that the pushing had failed, and they were going to try again.

So we waited. I conquered the Angry Birds level and moved on to another. The driver comes back on the loudspeaker to inform us that while this new attempt at pushing worked, the train then "lost air" and had to be "refilled." I really hope that has something to do with the breaks and not air for, like, breathing, because that could get scary. He reassured us that we'd "get moving soon."

But 15 minutes later, the doors simply opened. We were told we could walk back two stops to Coolidge Corner and take a shuttle to Kenmore, and that they were sorry for the inconvenience. So here was my dilemma - backtrack a quarter mile to shove onto a bus with a bunch of people to Kenmore (which is my stop) or walk three quarters of a mile to school. 

The walk seemed like a good idea -- until I realized that not one inch of Beacon St. had been plowed yet - the street or the sidewalk. 

And after class, I was greeted with a new kind of winter hell: the "wintry mix." This roughly means a mixture of snow, hail and rain coming down at the same time. Awesome. Let's just say that right now I'm wrapped in my duvet and my clothes are all in the dryer. 

But all of this is not to complain, just to communicate. My mother said I'm "making memories!" I'm also about to make myself an Irish coffee, to get through my accounting homework and class tonight!