snowfall.

When I was little, snow excited me. I loved the thought of spending hours trudging around in my boots and building snow forts with my siblings and drinking hot chocolate and—best of all—not going to school. It snowed last night in Nashville and continues to snow throughout today. And when I woke up, I was not excited.

Welcome to the real world. Adults don't get snow days (unless you work for a school district) and I got up early to dig my car out with my plastic dustpan and brush. I never got around to buying a snow shovel. (Using a plastic dustpan as a show shovel is a great way to break your plastic dustpan, fyi.)I spent a couple minutes trying to decide whether or not I should even attempt to drive into work. I kind of wanted to go in since I had been home sick a couple days, but I knew if I did go in, numbers would be low due to all my coworkers who conveniently "work from home" on days like this. (OK, maybe they actually do.) I checked Google Traffic and TDOT maps. We were ice free and I figured 3-4 inches of snow was relatively soft and safe.

I thought Miles was going to become an orphan this morning. Absolutely none of the roads had been cleared by TDOT (did someone forget to tell them it snowed last night? I think they waited for sunlight) and the interstates were so bad, I couldn't even tell which lane I was in. I headed up Nolensville at 20 mph, wondering whether or not these other cars were purposely running red lights and driving on the curbs and sidewalks. I merged onto I-440 not going any faster than 30 mph.

I-65 was packed and white and I cautiously moved to the left lane (no braking!) where it seemed most cars had traveled. I glanced in my rear view mirror just as the car behind me started to spin and careen to the right shoulder and I held my breath, just knowing the cars following would smash into it. But they didn't and the car stopped on the side of the road. My heart was beating pretty fast. I had enough scary for the morning and was thankful when I pulled into the parking garage at work in one piece.

At lunch I went down to the Pepsi machine to get a diet Mt. Dew and the stupid machine at my money. There was a number on the machine and I called it and they told me to go to the cafeteria downstairs and get my money back. (I normally am against buying soda from a machine because you can buy a 2-liter at Kroger for the same price as a 20-oz. but I'm having one of those days.) I was glad to notice out the windows that you could see most of the roads which made me optimistic about the drive home, which turned out to be very manageable.

The snow is drifting down slowly but steadily. It's prettier when I'm sitting in my front room with Miles on my lap. I feel a little silly being a Kansas girl getting slightly worked up over snow, but when I lived in Kansas, I enjoyed a school day. Now I'm an adult and actually have to drive in it. I think we'll be good for the next few days even though I'm pretty sure Metro schools are trying to stay out of school for the entire month of January.

I'm ready for spring. I'm keeping my eye out for daffodils and robins, although the other day when I was driving I looked down and saw a robin dead in the middle of the road with its feet sticking straight up. I'm pretty sure that is not a good sign.