Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Snow in the City



Even as a born and bred Southerner I've seen my fair share of snow. Living in Italy during the worst snowstorm Europe had seen in 70 years and spending winter breaks in upstate New York has given me a good idea of how it goes when there's a lot of snow. Generally, thermal underwear and snow tires are key.

But until a few weeks ago I had no idea what it was like to experience snow in the big city. Or more specifically, a blizzard in NYC.





For better or for worse, my neighborhood missed the brunt of the storm with an accumulation of about 8 or 10 inches (as opposed to central parks impressive 30). But, because of the overall severity of the storm, the whole city shut down. I'm talking cigarette shops, pizza places, the stoplights were out, and even the subways stopped running.

And that's where the fun began.

Having luckily dodged a nasty hangover, I got to see the whole thing unfold starting at around 7am. Between then and when most of my cohorts woke up around 2pm, I smoked some cigarettes, had some heavy handed Irish coffees, and watched it come down. Keep in mind that it was not just snowing, it was literally a blizzard, with winds so high they were ripping down flyers and tearing off scarves. And it was beautiful.


Once more people were up and about, i gathered a crew and went out in search of food, liquor, or anything that might be open. We managed instead to get thoroughly frozen, start a couple of snowball fights, and to convince my friend from LA that perhaps snow isn't so bad after all.

Over the next few hours people came and went, and a few of us decided that if the snow wasn't stopping, we would have to get our hands on something to drink. This foolhardy quest for liquor ended in us trying to sprint seven blocks through the blizzard to a store that was closing in five minutes.

Don't worry, we made it.

The day may have been cold and at times treacherous, but it did remind me that no matter where you are, snow seems to bring out the children inside of us and bring us together.



Here's to finding beauty in the storm... And to trudging through slush for the next week.
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