It's a a "Giant Slurpy" outside!

It's been a very interesting past 48 hours or so. Our mini-Nor'easter was just that.... mini and pitiful at best! It started snowing on Monday night and we probably had about 3 inches when I went out in the morning to walk Simon before work. In the following 12 hours it proceeded to sleet, pour rain, snow, sleet, pour rain. The land of Cambridge/Boston became one giant slurpy. Seriously. Ridiculous. Slush up to peoples knees in some places. It was so gross. My choir rehearsal got cancelled and then my ensemble group decided to postpone our weekly rehearsal. Woo-hoo! Happy Valentine's day to me :-)
After I got home from work I was relaxing for a bit when my doorbell rang. It was an older woman who asked me if I had a shovel because her car was stuck out in front of our apartment. I lent her a shovel and then went out to help her. She was seriously stuck. Slush, ice and snow. We rotated between shoveling and then her getting back into the car rocking it back and forth while I pushed. Yeh - right, ME pushing a car. It was freezing - I was soaking wet - well, we both were. So then there was this guy down the street who had been snowblowing and also had seen us in our hardship. The woman said she was going to go ask the guy if he would help me push because, really, that's all we needed -a little more manpower, one more person and boom the car would move. So she went to ask him if he would just help me push and he told her "no". No explanation just "no", and then turned away with his snow blower. NO? NO?! NO?!?! Can you tell that I am still furious about this? So anyhow, we were able to get the car out. My freakishly strong muscles proved themselves to be,um..., freakishly strong again.
Later in the evening Karen came over and she and Bree and I had a Valentine's dinner together. It was super yummy! Chicken au Champagne, brown rice with sauteed mushrooms, salad with a homemade lemon-olive oil vinigrette, and floating islands along with a rose wine.
Along with dinner came a "flash freeze warning". I have never heard of such a thing before! As turns out all that slush froze - absolutely solid. The slush on the sidwalk, the slush surrounding car tires, the snow on the ground was frozen solid. Simon and I went to the park and walked on top of the snow without leaving a footprint! What a mess it was this morning with people trying to get their cars out. Solid, solid ice. People with ice picks. It was a mess to walk on too. It took us 15 minutes longer to walk to school this morning than it usually does just because we were trekking across the Antarctic Plains otherwise known as the "route to Longy".
This tundra needs to go away soon. I can't run in this mess! Booooooooo!!
Yay for Fridays and weekends! :-)

Balloon Wars and Toilet Troubles...among other things

What a weekend! First the Winter Gala (see pics in previous posts), then the Bradford Valentine race which has become an annual tradition for me, and then a day of church and EEP planning plus laundry and all that other fun stuff.
Backing up... on Friday Michelle and Bree and I went over to Graham and Park School to meet with the woman who is/was to be our cooperating teacher. We got there ten minutes before we were supposed to meet with her and then left a half hour later because she never showed. It was supposed to be her planning period - and this was a very important meeting for us - not to mention that we got up early and made ourselves look nice and then had to walk there in the freezing cold. Michelle had gone to the office and they called for her over the loud speaker but she never came to our location of meeting. So, we decided to leave. When we were signing out in the office the principal decided to go look for her - then came back and said "Well, ladies I'm really sorry...I have no idea where she is. In fact, we have a policy that if you leave the building you are supposed to sign out." So that was a bit frustrating. Then, when I got back to school I found out that one of my classes had been cancelled - WOO-HOO! It turned out to be a good day after all.
Skipping to last night... so Karen came over after I got done practicing and she and Bree and I watched Rome. Then this whole thing about Balloons came up because Bree brought home a bunch of balloons tied together from the gala. Bree commented that she got the feeling that I hate balloons because she noticed me kicking them around in a frustrating manner. I concurred. I hate balloons. They're a nuisance. They are an awkward size. They get in the way. They move slowly. They are clutter. If they hang from the cieling then the string is hanging down and you hit your head on it. So then they were making fun of me and we were trying to pass them off on Karen but she wouldn't take them. About a 1/2 hour later I found the balloons tied to my door. HA HA HA. Well, right before I went to bed I tied them to our bathroom door. The door opens "in" to the bathroom so when Bree would make her last bathroom run for the evening it would be dark, she wouldn't see them, and she would run into them... not to mention not be able to close the door! This morning I got up and the balloons were gone - Praise the Lord. I got ready for my shower, turned on the shower, looked up, there were the balloons tied to the shower head with water pouring over them and a big smiley face on one of them. Well - being the mature person that I am - I took those balloons and hung them down outside Bree's door so that when she opened her curtains to come out they would hit her right in the face. I just cannot wait to come home from work this afternoon and discover where those stupid balloons have made their way to next.

Our toilet troubles began a little bit before the balloon saga happened. It was overflowing!!! Thank God with nothing in it (sorry) - but still EWWWW GROSS! We tried plunging and that wasn't working. Of course it's like 11:15 at night and there's realy no one we could call so then Bree remembered a trick from her old apartment - Flooding the toilet. We have a huge mopping bucket that probably holds 3-4 gallons of water if not more. Bree plunged - I filled the bucket full in the tub and carried it over and just dumped it in. We probably did this about 10-12 times and finally the water pressure worked and it was fixed and it flushes and doesn't flood!!!! But then we had to spend the time mopping and disinfecting the bathroom floor! Good grief!

It's only Monday and I feel like it's never going to end. LOL

This past weekend was Longy's annual Winter Gala hosted by the SAC. This year's theme was Masquerade. It was a rockin' good time with catered food from an Italian restaurant in the North End, live DJ, Chocolate Fountain, fantastic door prizes, free Bar, and a dance-off. The pictures below only show a fraction of the fun we had!

Bree, Karen and Me


Bree, Me, and Michelle




Brian and Me


Me and Ashley - my running partner. This was a "pre-race" photo as the next morning we got up to run a five mile which, by the way, we ran our fastest mile since we began training 3 weeks ago AND we had negative splits!!!


Me and Mike who came back to visit :-)


Ashley, Karen, and Andrea

Me and Karen


Bree and Michelle and I with one of our favorite teachers - Brian.


Who's behind the mask?


Ashley decided to come! I had to convince on the phone that she MUST come this year because, well, who else was I going to win the dance-off with this year??


Ashley and I planning our strategy before the dance-off. Last year we were the winners - the grand champions of the Longy dance-off!


Ashley and I didn't make it to the final round - but Brooke and her husband James did. They were phenominal and ended up as this year's grand champions.

Michelle and Brian - dance partners in the dance-off.




Michelle getting her groove on.


Karen and Catherine were finalists in the dance-off!


Jen


Our Judges - Dean Shay, Ruth and Mariko.


Arlyn teaching the Todo-Todo.