apocalypse (s)now
It is snowing in Madison today.
For those of you who didn't do a double-take and then check the calendar on your computers, today is April 28th. Otherwise known as three-days-before-the-start-of-May. So not only is it spring, it's venturing into "late spring" territory.
And yet, there were snowflakes falling from the sky this afternoon.
I'm pretty sure that this is a sign that the world is ending...especially when combined with the fact that the Cubs are in first place right now and Ronny Cedeno is actually playing well. I mean, who needs locusts, plagues, or an invasion of Daleks when you can have ginormous snowflakes?
I'm also pretty sure that I'm glad that, three weeks from right now, I'll be sitting in the U-Haul on the way to Wichita, the stopping point in my journey between Madison and Austin. Even though I spent much of last night having a complete breakdown about the fact that I will probably never be able to procure legal employment after graduation because of my inability to perform on law school exams, at least I won't be some place where it snows in April.
Labels: cubs, wisconsin winters = death
that'll do, weather
Apparently, Madison is in the middle of a massive snowstorm right now that will leave roughly a foot of freshly-fallen snow on the city by tomorrow.
Yes, it is March 21. I know; I double-checked.
Fortunately, I'm in Mesa, it's 77 degrees out at 10am, and I won't have to deal with snow when I go to the Brewers spring training game this afternoon. Right now, my "get out of Madison" spring break plans make me feel like a genius.
But if the snow/ice isn't off my car by the time I get home, and I have to dig my car out from underneath a sheet of icy residue yet again, I am going to be one very, very unhappy panda. (Some might even go so far as to call me a "sad panda".) And I will be an unhappy panda right up until the part where I move to Austin two months from, well, today, and never have to deal with snow again.
Labels: madison, wisconsin winters = death
i've had it up to here with winter
Is it just me, or doesn't "clear your sidewalks" mean that there shouldn't be a three inch thick icy, slushy mess covering your sidewalks?
Unfortunately, around my neighborhood (and the University), it seems that "clear your sidewalks" just means to brush off the sidewalk in an eighteen-inch-wide path that a wheelchair could get down (if the person in the wheelchair didn't mind the bumpy ride provided by the layers of ice and packed snow that no one wants to bother clearing).
It's really annoying that, on top of having to keep digging my car out from underneath the 80 inches of snow that have fallen since December, I end up risking breaking a bone every time I leave my apartment because people refuse to clear their sidewalks already.
On the bright side, moving to Texas in three months means that I'll never have to put up with this nonsense ever again.
Labels: wisconsin winters = death
the common-sense train has left the station
So yesterday I decided that it would be a good idea for me to dig my car out of the ice before the next batch of snow fell.
After chipping away at the four inch-deep pile of ice/snow that surrounded my tires, it was time to tackle the windows. And where was my ice scraper?
Stupidly, I put it in the trunk. When I opened the trunk, the scraper was wedged in the very back of the trunk up against the back seat.
Now, the smart person in this situation would just go into the backseat, pull the seat down, and retreive the scraper.
Instead, I just lean really far into the trunk to get the scraper. My trunk lid could not stay up because of the ice. So the lid kept falling down on my lower back as my legs came off the ground, causing me to pitch forward even further. Today, I have a bruise so painful that it hurts to walk or sit.
Thus concludes the story of how I tried to lock myself in the trunk of my own car. (I know; good story.)
Meanwhile, I don't know who is more excited about spending half of December and half of January in Texas - me, or my poor car.
Labels: wisconsin winters = death
pain
As much as I may whine about it sometimes, I really do enjoy my alone-ness. There's something really liberating about not having to live my life as though it revolves around another person's schedule, no having to check "our" schedules to see if I can go out and do something "I" want to do, etc. But tonight, I remembered the downside of the whole alone thing.I got home from a wonderful night out with friends (the first night out in a while), and conveniently forgot that my parking lot is a sheet of ice. (You would think that I would've remembered, since it took me an hour and a half earlier today to dig my car out of said ice.) I'm happily strolling across the lot into my apartment when I slip on the black ice.Like, cartoon character-style legs-over-head slip.And then land with a crack - except this cracking wasn't the ice.I can still feel my toes...but barely. There's this pain shooting up and down my leg right now, but it's not like a muscle pain or a bruise. It's more like someone's taking tiny needles and poking my bone really, really fast over a space of about six inches. And what sucks is that I can't get off the couch to go into the bathroom to get the peroxide to clean out the giant scrape on my elbow that also resulted from the aforementioned fall. (What's awesome is that I cut my elbow through a thick wool coat, a wool sweater, and a long-sleeved t-shirt.) And since it's 1:15 (2:15, depending on when it is we exactly spring forward tonight) on a Sunday morning, it's not like I have a lot of friends around that are free to, like, help me in case I pass out at some point in the night.If I were in a lighter mood, I'd joke about how this is just further proof that I need to move back down south where it's warm. But...this really, really isn't funny. Rather, it's just me coming to the sad realization that maybe, just maybe, I can't do everything on my own.Labels: madison, my neverending medical issues, wisconsin winters = death
need help; please send diet coke.
I realized this afternoon after I went into a selfish rage that, well, I've been on a shorter-than usual fuse lately.So in my mind, I rewind to this past weekend. Specifically, the half hour I spent on Sunday afternoon scraping ice off of my car, only to realize that it was all for naught because I'm parked on a giant sheet of ice and all that happens when I step on the gas pedal is that my wheels spin. This spinning means that I haven't been able to get to a grocery store in over a week. Which means that my weekly supply of caffeinated beverages has sadly run out. Instead of my normal 5 sodas a day, I'm down to 2...maybe 2 sodas plus a coffee, depending on the day.So if you see me between now and this weekend and I'm even less chipper than my normally disgruntled self, don't fret - I'm just going through serious caffeine withdrawal.In other news, have I mentioned lately that I hate law school/Madison and can't wait to leave? Labels: madison, wisconsin winters = death
i'll take "things i'd never thought i'd hear myself say" for $400, alex
As the snow continues to fall here in good old Mad City, I've started to come to a realization.I want to move to Texas.Why would anyone that has spent their whole life living dreaming of living in the northeast (or Chicago) ever even remotely consider moving to the Lone Star State?Well...yeah, okay, my parents live there. More importantly, I'd like to think I could move back in with my parents and live relatively cheaply while I try to pay off my $160,000 in loans on a $35,000/year salary. And since on that salary I couldn't afford my Cubs games, I may as well be as far away as I can get to avoid the temptation of enjoying a sunny Saturday at Wrigley.It's warm there most of the year. Today, my mother sent me yet another "hey, guess what - I got sunburned this week!" message - just her way of letting me know that she thinks it's hilarious that I'm stuck under a foot of snow loves me. Apparently.And since I haven't mentioned it in a while...decent Mexican food. Edible Mexican food. Mexican food that was cooked by Mexicans that came across the border illegally a week ago - not a year ago. (And yes - only 27 days until I go to Texas for spring break, and Mexican food will be the first thing I eat after my grandparents go back to New York.) Labels: austin, mexican food, wisconsin winters = death
warmth
As I said yesterday, the law school is ridiculously cold. This morning, I got to class and my toes never thawed out from the ten minute walk between the bus stop and the law school. Today, however, in exchange for some delicious chocolate, a friend directed me to the one warm spot in the law school: the Remington Center. Now, instead of freezing in the library, I'm enjoying a cozy seat in the RC, and my toes have finally stopped hurting from the cold. I'm convinced that this is some sort of Walter Dickey-created conspiracy. The Dickey Disciples on the faculty want everyone to join one of the Remington Center prison-based clinics. So my guess is that they've taken the whole "pimping the clinics in Crim Law classes" thing one step further by cutting off the heat in the rest of the building. So now students have to choose the lesser of two evils: participate in a Remington Center clinic instead of taking actual classes, or take the classes and lose your fingers and toes to frostbite. Labels: the dickey conspiracy, wisconsin winters = death
i just figured out what my tuition pays for
I hate the cold weather. It doesn't agree with my constitution. We didn't have much cold weather down south. Unlike the north, we boasted warm(er) weather in winter, edible fried chicken, and an uncanny ability to turn a two-syllable word into a six-syllable word.Needless to say, I (like many other students) get really cranky when we come in from the frigid cold outside to discover the law school building is also ridiculously cold. Right now, I'm sitting in class with two layers of clothes and a scarf on and still freezing cold. And after five minutes of freezing, I noticed the draft above my head (in a windowless room).That's right - my law school in the middle of Wisconsin is running the air conditioning. In February. During the coldest spell of the winter. I don't know about you all, but in my experience, it's way cheaper to use gas to heat a building than to use electricity to run the air conditioner all day. I mean, it's not like this is the Mall of America, and we can use the body heat of all the students to heat the building instead of actual heating systems.This only makes me wonder how much money is used to pay for the fact that the admininstration can't use energy efficiently. Labels: my tuition payments, wisconsin winters = death
coincidence?
For the record, I did not plan to get hit with an icky stomach virus today to keep me from venturing outside to class on the coldest day of the year (as in, it's -7 outside right now).Not even I am that awesome.(And yes, I really am sick. I'm not using that as an excuse to not go outside and subsequently lose my toes to frostbite.)Labels: my neverending medical issues, wisconsin winters = death
