Venturing Out

Grateful for this day. Today I ventured outside of the square mile in which James and I had been holed up since Sunday. It was remarkable. Ice and snow everywhere. I've never seen roads covered in ice and snow. Honestly, this is a first for me. I've lived in Georgia my whole life thus my winter experiences are rather limited. Here are a couple misconceptions about winter that my good Southern upbringing has taught me -

• Snow and ice are practically synonymous - Here in Georgia, when it snows, it ices inevitably. And I'm not talking picturesque icicles or a little slicking on the sidewalks, I'm talking full on, roads closed, power out, can't leave your house ice. 
• Throwing snowballs is dangerous - The texture of Southern snow is rather different than that of Northern snow. My mom, a Wisconsonian herself, has always bemoaned the wet, hard nature of Southern snow. In the North snow is fluffy and light, easy to pack into a formation but not melty and slushy like it is here. You can't throw a Georgia snowball, even if you tried, because what you'd actually be throwing is an ice clod. Despite this trend, the snow that fell almost a week ago was of the fluffy variety for the first 12 hours after it fell. It was magical.
• Snow is a rare thing - I lived the majority of my short 21 years believing that snow is something that almost never happens. In Georgia, we get maybe, maybe three two-inch icy snowfalls a year, each melting completely within a day or two. For these, the whole state holds it's breath and rushes to the store for milk and bread. It's only been in the last five years or so that I've fully grasped the idea that snow happens...a lot in some places. There are places just couple states north of here that can have snow on the ground for WEEKS at a time! Mind-blowing.

So with these misconceptions in mind, we took to the streets of Georgia, my beloved and I. It was nightmarish, a bit. So much ice! A couple of fishtailing experiences and a few tense uphill/downhill rides later and I'm thoroughly convinced that we should all stay in our houses at least another day or two. Pretty scary stuff.

Was scheduled to work today. Turns out we were incredibly slow so home I went. Same for James. Played Pokemon cards. Journaled. Wedding-planned. Played Gears of War 2. Day-dreamed. Then off to the Wallace's for a happy D&D game with James's good friends Jon and Will. I'm pretty fond of spending hours around a game board with hand-fulls of die and fun people, laughing our way through epic and preposterous situations. Though school is canceled tomorrow, I feel like today was enough to recharge my batteries for another day of being home-bound. Grateful.