Snow Days

Do you remember how it was?  The flakes would start to fall or you’d hear the forecast and you wondered if you would have school the next day.  The pajamas would be turned inside out, we’d say a prayer, get all our homework done and then wait. We’d listen to the radio in the morning, to the endless list of schools, and hope we didn’t miss hearing ours was closed.  When the word came, it was bliss.  When I was young it meant playing outside, sledding down the street, building a snowman or having a snowball fight. In high school it meant blessed sleep.  Now, it’s all about time.

I wonder if we ever get over it.   I have a snow day tomorrow. My second one in a row and I am so very happy.  It’s one of the perks of my job that if the roads are bad, more than likely I will not have to go to work.  I can sleep in, stay in my pajamas all day, catch up on my reading, or clean a long neglected closet…whatever I want. I know I could be one of those people who have to brave bad weather and go to work regardless.  My best friend is a nurse and she will be out on the road at 5:30 tomorrow morning to get to work for her 7 am shift.  

I’m lucky and I know it.

What always surprises me is how teachers are about snow days. We compulsively check websites to see if the district is closed and when the call comes, there is a massive status update on Facebook.  We’re giddy and as bad as the kids. I guess that’s part of the personality, part of us that never grew up. I can live with that; being an adult is tedious.

For me, tomorrow will be a quiet day.  My kids are older, so I won’t have to keep them occupied. My son will sleep in, my oldest daughter will make her way to classes, and my husband will go to work. As I nurse a cup of coffee, I’ll worry about my middle girl braving the hills at Lehigh to get to her 8 am class. Then I’ll decide what to do with my found time.  In this world where we are slaves to our BlackBerry's and our schedules, finding time is a luxury and something we should do for ourselves more often.  Once in a while, the weather does me a favor.  

I could attack one of those neglected closets, and Lord knows there’s plenty of laundry to do, but I’m thinking, maybe, I won’t make a plan and just see what happens.  After all, it’s a snow day--a gift.  I can do anything I want.