I was supposed to work today; I was standing in my kitchen waiting for the water to boil so I could make coffee.  I  looked out over North Asbury Park and it was almost a white out with blowing snow.  There is something so beautiful about the palette of this kind of morning.  It is light but there is no color: grey sky, grey buildings and a wall of white blowing snow.  My boss called me at 7:15am to tell me the library was closed for the day due to snow.  I turned off the burner, got the dog and climbed back into bed.  This is one of those moments that transports you right back to childhood.  Snow day.

When I was a kid, I lived near railroad tracks.  They were just beyond our back yard and on the other side of the tracks was a box factory that had a switching yard in it.  In the winter, when it snowed, they would warm the switching yard tracks with gas jets and they were loud enough to hear inside our house.  There were times, as a kid, that I would wake up and I’d hear the hum of the gas, the sound of winter to my sister and I, and I’d run into her room: snow day, snow day.  We’d turn on her radio and listen to school closings.

As an adult, for me, a snow day is like a sweet gift of time and I used it wisely.  I spent a couple hours at my neighbor’s apartment drinking coffee and just socializing with some folks in my building.  I vacuumed the rugs in my house.  I hung a bunch of art that I’ve been meaning to hang.  I watched a video.  I took a nap and I made my girlfriend a tiny painting/card for Valentine’s Day.  She is anti-Valentine’s Day; so, it is especially fun to do something for her that she’ll like and that is not heart shaped or traditional in any way.  I often joke with her that it’s impossible to pass by a chocolate holiday without purchasing some chocolate; but, I’ve promised the chocolate will be rectangular!  A friend snorted when I told her this and said: but you’re a big mushy romantic and I replied: true, but she is inspiring me to be creative about it and I love that.  I love that I have to think outside the box and that when I do, I get to surprise her and show her another way to see something.

So much has happened on this Snow Day which is really just a reminder that sometimes, even if it is not snowing, it’s important to take a snow day.