5 Words of Wisdom for Driving in the Snow

VA is the New Antarctica. Since Southerners (yes we're Southern despite what all the Northern VA people want to believe) don't have experience driving in the snow here is my advice for safe travel.

1. For all the Northerners and Mid-Westerners that moved here shut up about how VA never plows the road and in my state we do this... This is what I hear: I'm a big jackass that thinks I'm important. Let me rant about something that is out of my control and out of the control of anyone I'm talking to. You have a problem? Take it up with VDOT. Or better yet, if you liked your state so much - move back.

If you decide to stay here, then this is what you need to know: we stock up on enough bread and milk to last two weeks, we hunker down and don't go out in snow, and no we don't plow. Why would we need to plow? No one is going anywhere.

2. For all the people with 4-wheel drive who think they jumped out of a truck commercial. News flash - see that fine print at the bottom of the screen as that SUV takes on a snowbank and wins. It says professional driver on a closed course. You're not a professional driver and there is no reason for you to be driving 80 mph and tailgating me when it's snowing. Do you see those cars in the ditch? Slow down or they may be you.

3. If your normally drive like a jackass - i.e. tailgating, honking your horn, cutting people off - please stop on a snow day. Everyone is going slow. You know the lane ends so just move over. People can't stop on a dime in bad weather and if you cut me off and I slide into you - my feeling is it's not my fault.

4. Again everyone with 4-wheel drive - if you see a car sliding in front of you, you probably shouldn't try to pass them in the same lane. They aren't in the shoulder - they're sliding off the road trying to correct themselves. You passing them would probably mean you're a jerk. The driver of the car doesn't need your ass distracting them as you blow past them with a cellphone and Starbucks in hand and since I'm in the next lane - I don't want either one of you plowing into me.

5. Don't jam your brakes or your gas. Ok this is a real tip because I want everyone to be careful and not plow into my car. If you jam the brake or the gas you'll probably slide and lose traction.

I'm Day Dreaming of Warm Weather....

Since VA has decided to turn into the Arctic, I for one have been daydreaming non-stop of Spring and Summer. My dreams revolving around a pool, vacations and less layers. Never again will I complain about 100 degree weather. Anything is better than all this snow!

I will say all this snow has inspired my Spring fashion - as in anything rainbow colored, the brighter the better. I went shopping after work for snow boots - apparently like sleds all the snow boots are gone until next year. But the shoe store happens to be next to Old Navy so... let's just say major props to the window designer at Old Navy. What better way to attract customers sick of all this cold weather, big puffy coats and dry skin then a bunch of brightly dressed mannequins screaming for you to come in and just slip into something a little bit brighter. And slip in I did. I quickly gathered up a bright florals, lime greens, lemon yellows, cool greys and scurried off to the dressing room.

I have to say I've always loved Old Navy. The clothes are relatively inexpensive. Slightly trendy but leaning more on comfortable. And their jeans fit me better than anything else I've found. So, I ended up buying more things than I should have and normally I totally would have waited for a sale but for some reason I couldn't make myself part with any of it. Besides which, due to all the snow my budget is looking pretty good. You can't spend money if you can't leave your house!

So what I'm loving after this trip - aside from all the tropical colors - grey jeans (they also had some super cute baby pink ones but they were cropped pants which don't look good on anyone under 5'6"), bright summer/spring scarfs, ballet flats, slightly 80's vibe t's... they also had some cute purses/totes that were very earth friendly looking but with a "painted" design on the front. For the jeans I think the spring colors were much easier to wear than the previous neon jeans that paraded around summer/fall '09. They had a grey, white, pale blue and baby pink. I actually found a second pair of grey ones on the clearance rack - even better!

So think spring people! Oh and if you know a place where I can get some snow boots asap let me know.

Snow - A Santa Or A Grinch?

Snow. For little kids you hear a scream of joy (visions of snowball fights, snow angels, snowmen fill their head). For adults there is this groan (unless you're a school teacher because around here you're guaranteed to get out of work for even the chance of flurries). There's a mad rush to the grocery store (apparently we can't live without milk and bread). The frantic watching of TV in hopes your work or school closed. Then the waiting. I for one did get the obligatory milk but also margarita mix and champagne to help wait it out.

Part of me still likes snow. How can you not like it? It's so beautiful and everything just sparkles, especially with all the Christmas lights. The other part of me that knows it would take a massive blizzard for my work to close dreads it. That part reads up to 12 inches as meaning "great, I might get in an accident on the way to work on Monday".

The funny thing is in NJ my work was super flexible about snow. Come in if you can, if you can't not a big deal. They plow roads in NJ and there isn't as much ice so driving in snow ends up being not as huge of a deal as driving in snow and ice in VA. Still my first snow storm up there we got 18 inches (which was more than I had seen in awhile coming from VA). I was like a little kid playing outside with K's dogs, enjoying a snow day and the best part - roads were clean by mid-day so off to the mall or Starbucks.

I'm not going to bash my job specifically here (even though their policy is they won't close unless its some earth shattering event) but I'm going to bash companies in general that don't think 12 inches is enough to close. My dad called me this morning to tell me the mall was opening at 8am. Is it really worth it for Victoria Secret (or anywhere else) to open and drag some poor high school kid out of bed? I mean they may get five customers all day - fools that drive SUV's and saw the commercials and think they can tackle a snowbank. We'll be lucky to be plowed out on Monday.

I can understand companies that say essential personnel - like fire departments, police, hospitals, security, power companies. But the key here is essential personnel - you don't really need the VP's secretary back in the office to get the hospital running, or the power back on, or the police out on the roads. Essential personnel should be people that you need to keep the city going not randoms. Essential personnel knew when they got hired - get an SUV for the few times you might need it to get to work. They get overtime or extra money or whatnot. I don't get extra money to try to navigate my 2000 Mazda though 12 inch snowbanks. My car couldn't even get in the driveway last night and there was barely an inch on the ground. Now I'm hoping I'm far enough in my yard that a plow or some stupid kid doing donuts in the street won't hit it.

So snow is my Santa and my Grinch. I like seeing it for all of an hour or maybe even half a day on Saturday. But I'm ready for 80 degree weather and to melt all of this away. I'm convinced I was born to live somewhere with a beach and warm weather all year - I just need to win the lottery first.