no no no! not yet!!!

i think it was the year before i moved to MN that there was a humongus blizzard on halloween. since it was still fresh in memory, it was all my fellow freshmen could talk about once the weather turned colder. i saw pictures, made readily available by homesick bunkmates, of 18 year olds in halloween garb and columbia boots, throwing snowballs at each other. i smiled and nodded. "yeah, i'm from IL, we have bad winters too - windy city, ya know?" and of course, that year happened to be la nina: the mildest winter MN had seen in a decade.

the following winter was similar. and the one after that. senior year, the year i had to drive to my classes, i got my first full-fledged MN winter experience. it's not what you'd expect either. my memory holds picutres of mounds of snow taller than myself, of ice skating on the twice frozen lawn, of thawing my piggies in warm water after hours of skiing. what, oh what did MN show me? below zero temperatures.

ice cold wind blowing in from all directions, swirling around your thick jacket, hat and mittens, finding every single piece of skin showing and making sure to threaten it with frostbite. i owned relatively good winter clothing before this fateful winter. i am a bit of a winter enthusiast - broom ball, ice skating, bonfires, hiking - i do it all. but this was the winter of bundle. every subsequent december, i acquired at least one more article of warmth and insulation.

i am the proud owner of matching columbia well-layered, cold-weather jacket, boots and mittens. i have one of the largest collections of scarves and hats i know of, and of mittens - well, i am picky about those as i have raynaud's disease.

anyways, so i moved to chicago in the dead of winter. i came fully prepared and ready to face up to a few more harsh months. and didnt get them... the thaw didnt come for a while, but snow sure wasnt around. where was the march blizzard i was so used to? i had my portable shovel all ready to dig my car out of legendary chicago snow plow mounds. didnt use it once.

so this year, i'm happy and diggin' the weather change. i love the fall. love it. when it gets colder, i get livelier and happier. so yesterday when the guy on the radio predicted snow for today, i pshawed him and shrugged on my thin denim jacket. days end, i was a bit... cold. ok, i was freezing. all last night i was curled up in layers of sweatpants and shirts. and this morning, when i sat down with my bowl of cherrios in front of the news, i glazed over at the big blue mass hovering close to the chicago area. whatever. who cares... but it is gonna be in the 30's today - oo! i can wear my sweaters again! so i bounced to the bedroom and layered up, for the hell of it.

just at the entrance to the dan ryan, i saw something funny. dandruff? shit. no.. effer!! SNOW!!! and i marveled and sent text messages... i took it in stride, it was only a few flurries. so i kept driving. and i turned on my windshield wipers. and my headlights. and i put on my breaks. and then i couldnt really see the cars in front of me. effing-a. white out conditions.

please note that it's october 12th today. and this is what happened:

snow!

more snow!!

Just so's you know - i am having issues with blogger posting pix. anyone else have this problem too? and i cant access flikr right now. :o) hence the links.