Sunday, February 19, 2012

Wonderful Winter Wonderland Weekend

I literally cannot believe what's happening right now.
SNOW?! During WINTER? In February??
These photos were taken at 2:30, but even they don't do this storm justice. It is dumping snow here, and has been for some time.
Mother Nature, this is by far one of your best jokes.
You gave us Virginians 60-degree weather, mixed with more rain than the Amazon sees annually, for 3 months, and now you've decided we need a blizzard?
As a winter baby, I love snow. Everything about it. The way it tastes, the way it smells, the way it sounds coming down, the way it feels... Okay, yeah, I like to experience snow with all my senses. Good thing, because it looks like we're in for a long night of it.

Allow me to back up a bit. Friday, as you may remember, was Ian's and my second Valentine's Day celebration, as we traveled to Richmond to see The Lion King on Broadway.
We enjoyed a cheap dinner at my favorite sub joint, Jersey Mike's. I always love The Veggie on whole wheat bread with lots of delicious veggie frills. We even indulged in some SF, which happened to be right next door.
I'm such a sucker for the fat-free Cake Batter froyo + fresh fruit + the marshmallow creme topping. Talk about a heart attack!
Then we headed downtown to be sure we could get a space in the parking deck across from the Landmark Theatre. It's always a zoo (pun intended). What a fantastic production. Everything was flawless, there was so much to take in, and I was grinning from ear to ear for hours. The giraffes are my absolute favorite thing:
During the summer of 2002, my church youth group traveled to NYC and NJ for a mission trip. As this was planned before 9/11 happened 10 months before the trip, we were limited in the activities we had scheduled. The Statue of Liberty was inaccessible, all but the lobby of the Empire State Building was inaccessible, security was extremely heightened... But Broadway did not cease to amaze. I am so blessed that I was able to experience my first Broadway production, The Lion King, at 13. Since that time, I have also seen Hairspray and Wicked, and I have really come to develop a love for the theater. This was Ian's first Broadway experience, and I was so glad I was able to share it with him!

Saturday morning, after having been up until 2:00 a.m. laughing and reminiscing with my family, we arose bright and early to head to H-SC for the basketball game versus Randolph-Macon -- a bitter rivalry, to say the least. The Tigers didn't disappoint!
Caroline and I didn't storm the court with the rest of the student body, but we sure were fired up!
We celebrated the Tigers' win by dining at a Farmville favorite, Macado's. I ordered a new selection instead of my usual Build-Your-Own-Sandwich, the Southwestern Fiesta Salad -- complete with real grilled chicken:
I had absolutely no complaints, and I topped this baby off with a schooner of Miller Lite...
...minus the official Macado's schooner glass due to dishwashing difficulties. It still tasted the same, because our ever-so-kind waiter provided me with a schooner straw.

We headed back to campus for a lot of relaxing, a bit of adult beverage consumption, and, as expected, a great deal of debauchery. When Ian, Caroline and I get together, it's only to be expected.
Caroline "acquired" the Cowgirl Chic look, as she was fashionably ill-equipped for the weather.
A great time was had by all, and little sleep was had by all. We woke up at 8:15 to not even a hint of snow, and dozed until 11:00, when we discovered that the snow was coming down heavily where both Caroline and I go to school. I hate when our trio's weekends have to come to a hasty end, but we didn't want to be traveling in unsafe weather. I even threw in a frenzied trip to Kroger for some essentials before parking it for the night! I mean, who can weather a snowstorm without sushi? ;)

Now, the great debate is whether or not to walk a half-mile and back to the gym for a 30-minute run... I had to forego my long run yesterday, and I'm afraid that if I blow off today, too, that I'll be snowed in tomorrow, workout-less and feeling guilty. Looks like it's time to break out some boots!
Be safe in this crazy snow, if you're in good ole VA! Ta ta!

P.S. How did you spend your weekend? This snowstorm -- are you excited, or not so much? How many workouts in a row are you willing to skip?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Beer with a straw! It's officially a thing now.

Girl Emerging said...

The beer straw is the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned ;) Better drinkability, better flavor, freer use of hands... Need I go on?