At one point in my life I thought snow was a magical powdery substance that brought nothing to one's life but pure bliss. I watched all the Christmas movies where the kids rolled around making snow angels and having spectacular snowball fights. I was able to sustain this fantasy up until high school during a family trip up north in the winter, specifically a day at Pike's Peak. Yes, we had fun sledding and playing in the snow, but then I started to notice massive amounts of snow creeping up my sleeves and down my pants, and it did not stay in its powder form. It melted. Rapidly. My thighs started to tingle, a little at first and then painfully for the rest of the excursion. Not only that, but I was wearing some hideous version of boots that were supposed to keep my feet warm and dry, but all I could think about was how atrocious they were, and hoping I didn't run into some gorgeous rugged park ranger when my feet looked like Jane Goodall.
My relationship with the snow has not improved, perhaps because I am clueless about what to do with it. Our very first snowfall, Matt and I were walking to my car and he said, "Isn't it beautiful?!" only to look over and see me crying somewhat uncontrollably. To be fair, the tears were mostly due to a little bit of homesickness triggered by the alien precipitation.
The first day I had a significant amount of snow on my windows, I got in the car and thought, "Well, in Texas when it's foggy I just roll down my windows to get the fog off." Once again in my defense, it was early in the morning and I probably wasn't thinking very clearly. It didn't occur to me that when I rolled down the windows, all the snow would come inside my car, some of it on me. Lesson learned, snow.
No one ever told me to not use my emergency brake when temperatures are below freezing. Well, I guess someone at some point did in fact tell me, because I'm sure the idea didn't come out of nowhere when I was trying to figure out why my emergency brake light wouldn't turn off. Using the emergency brake was a basic part of learning to drive, so this new lesson included a sticky note pasted onto my emergency brake saying, "No!"
I keep intending to take a picture after a fresh snowfall, but every time I walk outside in the morning and my car is covered by a few inches of deceivingly beautiful powder, all I do is curse silently and get out my ice scraper.
Afterwards we walked around Temple Square to see all the beautiful Christmas lights. We followed the advice of our native Salt Lake friends and went to Blue Lemon on the south side of Temple Square and really loved it! We spent a while there talking and reminiscing on good friends and good memories. Life never seems to work out the way we expect it to, but I am grateful for the lessons and the people I've met along the way.
