When The World Was Covered With Ice {or How I Survived A Week At Home With My Family}

We've been housebound for the past week while our entire world came to a complete halt and was covered in snow.  Anyone who tells you that it's so wonderful being at home with their family for a whole week without any kind of break or alone time is lying.  Lying.  Right to your face. 

At first it was fine.  Kind of like a fun camping adventure, but in my own bed and without the bugs and camping stove.  And the flannel shirts and boots and outdoor fires and roasted marshmallows.  And there were no fishing poles.  And no one sat around singing camp songs.  And at no point was I fearful of a wolf or a bear coming to steal our food in the middle of the night.  You know, really, it was nothing like camping at all.

It snowed a lot.  More than we've seen in several years.  It's funny because every fall we, Prince Charming and I, sit around talking about how we'd really like a big snow this year.

"Yeah, I could go for that."

"Totally.  Me too.  Like, that would be awesome!" Prince Charming never really got over that Valley Girl phase.  Sometimes I'm embarrassed for him.

Once the snow stopped, the ice came.  Not the Ice Man, because we don't have one of those.  Actually, I've never really seen an Ice Man, so if we do have one, I wouldn't know.  Anyway, the power went out which really sucked for about six hours.  Then it came back on.  Then it snowed some more on top of the ice.  Then the cable went out.  And the internet.  And my kids started getting a little antsy and whiny.

"What are we supposed to do without the internet?"

Wait.  Sorry.  That was me.  I had all these blogs and status updates that I wanted to write.  I tried putting them all in a Word document, but it just wasn't the same.  I wasn't able to look at you when I was talking, and, truly, knowing you're out there when I'm typing really does make all the difference.  I'm not lying.

What I was able to do during our two day technological hiatus was reconnect a bit with my lens, which was something I promised myself I'd do in the new year.

Yes, that was an official resolution.  Even though I promised I wasn't going to tell you what any of those were, I'll let that one go.

I officially resolved to connect with my lens.

So, I set up my new tripod and started looking out the window.  What I realized, however, was that my neighbors were getting a little freaked out because I had my camera pointed out the window.  I really didn't care all that much until they put up a sign that said

STOP TAKING PICTURES OF US OR

WE'LL CALL THE POLICE!

Nag, nag, nag...We've never been close, anyway.  Who cares?  I'm over it. 

Turns out.  The ice was pretty cool, too.

 
It totally covered the trees in our yard.  The trees that grow cherry blossoms every spring.  The trees that I've taken thousands of images of because I love the bright pinks and greens that pop out on their branches.  The trees that I then get totally sick of because I've examined every possible knot and cranny on their trunks.  The trees that I want to hack down during the summer and fall when they drop inedible cherries on my car that stick all over my roof and make little burgundy spots on the paint which my dad then says I need to scrape off because it'll ruin the paint and really I should just be covering up my car with a protective sheet or better yet, just clean out the garage so that I can park in there.

The trees that died in the ice storm after they were so covered in ice that one of them fell over and the other lost so many branches that we're going to have to cut it down anyway.  Poor trees.  I took their picture over and over and over, just so I could remember them.

Then I got sick of it.

Then I got sick of the ice and the snow.

And I got sick of the technological hiatus.

And I got sick of my kids and all the stuff they kept wanting from me...like food.  Food means dishes.  Dishes means cleaning.  I got sick of cleaning.

I got sick of Prince Charming and his stupid outdoor extension cords that he draped all over the house in case the power went out again and he needed to hook things up to the generator.

And his 1000 piece puzzle that was spread out all over the kitchen table.

And the popcorn that was dropped on the carpet during our Marley & Me movie night that we didn't get to finish because the disc was bad.

I was in a foul mood.  Severely foul.  It was vulgar.  Almost vile.  I needed out of the house.  I needed to go somewhere that didn't require me to prep, plan, cook, clean, referee, deal with, play with or listen to anything.  So, Prince Charming took me to see Happy Feet 2.

No.  I'm being serious.  Unfortunately, it wasn't playing at the wine bar movie theater, so I had to suffer through with a diet coke, two buckets of popcorn and a Milky Way.  Oh, and the kids were there, too.  Girle and I split a Twix bar.  Then I felt better. 

When we got home, I apologized to everyone for being Cabin-Fever-Psycho-Mom-From-Hell.  They were all very understanding.  They didn't even make me pick up all their clothes that I threw out the windows.  I probably will anyway, though.  PC wanted to make sure that I put that part into the story.

"What about your attitude?  Huh?  You gonna' talk about that?"

"Yes.  Okay...honey.  I'll talk about that."

 
Yadda...yadda...yadda....I roasted a chicken, put Ocean's 11 in the DVD player, the cable came back on, and I was happy.

The End.

P.S.:  My mother called from L.A. where she's been stuck since the airport here shut down and she couldn't fly home.  Evidently it rained there.  The pavement got wet.  The people on the news called it Storm Watch 2012.  I guess there were some moms down there who got a nasty case of Cabin Fever. 

I can relate.