Snow Day in Philly

We started pretty low this week with the girls having puke fest 2010, interviews looming over Joshua, and our scooter deciding it had had enough of life. Fortunately, the week went up from there ending with two days of being snowed in, which have been complete bliss.

Risking the possibility of Joshua not showing up for his own birthday dinner we decided to have our party on the 4^th rather than waiting for the weekend. We made a german chocolate cake from scratch and a tasty dinner to go with it. (You can tell which one I thought was more important.☺) The irony is that Joshua actually got home on time and I didn’t finish the dinner for another hour. In spite of it all, we had a really nice evening together and did our best to give our daddy a happy birthday.

Joshua is in the middle of interviewing for summer internships. He has had five out of fourteen interviews. Most of them have gone really well. One he just had to laugh off, but honestly, who would want to work for GM anyway. He made it to the final round of interviews for BCG (Boston Consulting Group) and we are waiting to hear from the others. That seems to be what this whole process is all about...WAITING while someone else decides your future. So we will keep waiting, and praying, and trying to keep so busy with other things that we can’t worry about it too much.

Friday evening it started snowing. Saturday we woke up to a foot and a half of snow on the ground and the party began. After our german pancake breakfast we bundled up and went out in the snow. Josh pulled the girls on our sled and we headed out for snow day adventure in the city. We crossed the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is usually packed with traffic, without even looking both ways. The girls were singing and would squeal with delight when the snow would come up over the edge of the sled into their laps. We trudged over to the art museum, got a picture with Rocky, and let the girls sled down the museum steps. It was just one of those magical mornings that you know you will never forget. After the sledding adventure our noses and toes were beginning to freeze so we headed back home for a hot chocolate party. The best part is, that was just the beginning of our snow day. The snow kept coming all day long and we were more than happy to hull up in our house and enjoy some time together.

Now for a minute I have to laugh at these Easterners and their handling of winter storms. Those of you who have lived in the East know the panic that ensues when snow is predicted. Sure enough on Friday we picked Josh up from school and then swung by Trader Joe’s to pick up a gallon of milk because we were getting low. Josh went inside, looked around, and came right back out. The lines wound around the entire store. We went home, pulled out the powdered milk to augment our supply and were grateful we didn’t have to waste three hours of our lives standing in line for milk.

But, what I really don’t understand is who sold the city of Philadelphia snow plows. Whoever it was went a laughing all the way to the bank. Okay, so two feet of snow fall on the ground and the snow plows come out to “help.” For those of you who have not YET visited, the streets here are super narrow. Basically, cars park along one side of the street and then other cars can just manage to drive down the other side. Enter snow plow. Imagine watching out your window while a snow plow comes crawling down your street, approximately five cm from the side of your car, pushing snow along in front of it. The problem is there is nowhere to put the snow. As far as I can tell they just pushed it up under and against the cars so that it can refreeze as one big ice chunk and you, after returning home from standing in line at the grocery store for three hours, can spend the rest of your day digging your car out with a shovel.

We just finished shoveling our walks and digging out our car, which took most of the morning. But even with that, I must say, we have had a really fun weekend. Hooray for snow! It is almost as fun in a city as it is in the mountains.