Snowmageddon, Or If You're Going to Get Snowed In, Get Snowed In With Friends

Our balcony, at the end:
How did we get such a balcony? Well it all started on . . .

Friday, February 5.

We’re all stocked up and ready for the weekend snow, including the wires to connect my laptop to the TV so we can have youtube parties and other such events, like watching streaming Netflix on the TV. The federal government closes early, so Susan comes over and we hang out until she begins to get worried about getting home. I’ve gotten stuck sleeping over at her place at the last two snow storms, and we want to avoid the appearance of evil, so she drives home.

My roommate has a girl coming over, so I head over to my friends Myles apartment to hang with him, since there are few things more awkward than a date with the roommate in the apartment, even if I’m just hiding in the back reading homework or whatever. On my way over I grab some branches and pull them down, watching the light snow fall off in waves of dust as I let them spring back.

We watch Killer Klowns from Outer Space, during which the power flickers once. As we move into our second movie, Dark City, the power goes out. Luckily we were watching that one on Myles’ laptop, so we continue watching it until the battery dies . . . about 3 minutes before the end of the movie. D’oh! I trudge home about 1 a.m. after sticking around and talking for a little bit. I grab the same branches and the snow doesn’t dust off, it just stays stuck.

Our power is off as well, so I just go to bed by the light of my iPhone. This is what it looks like outside:


Saturday, February 6.

Our power is still out and from what I can gather from the internet on my iPhone it will be for a while. Luckily we have gas-heated water, so we can still shower. Our other roommate, Steve, is still in Albuquerque and has left his car and car keys, and given his permission to use his car. We decide that it can make it to Susan’s house, so we head over to pick her up, while inviting people over for card games in an hour and a half.

On the 495, we pass a car going the other way as well as several stuck semi trucks. My roommate Adam and I have the following conversation (he’s driving):
Adam: Matt Hamm had me all worried about driving, but I don’t think he understood the firepower of Steve’s car.
Carl: Yes. This is a fully armed and operational SUV.
Adam: The snow can’t repel horsepower of this magnitude! Ah, nerds in a blizzard.

The exit to Georgia avenue is totally walled off due to snowplows, even if the 495 itself is easy to drive on for Steve’s SUV. So we have to go back. Problem is, ALL of the exits are snowed in. So, taking a queue from that guy we saw driving backwards earlier, we decide to drive backwards as well. Here’s the proof, us driving the wrong way on the 495.



At this point we also go to pick up Tristan Holley and Rachel Rawlinson, and we show up back at our place about 45 minutes later than we told people to show up. Wendy Nelson and Samina Shaik have already come, hung out in our hallway that currently looks like it’s something out of the Silent Hill video games, and left. We see people sledding on the hill by the Grosvenor metro station, and cross country skiing down Connecticut Avenue.


We attract a small group of people to play games with, and I cook a dinner of fajitas after we ate a lunch of leftover lasagna from Adam’s date the previous night. I feel nice and warm standing by the gas stove. After the sun goes down we sit and talk until someone decides we should go sledding. We grab garbage bags from our place and cardboard boxes from Becky Carlson’s to create makeshift sleds. They work pretty well, and we all have a great time.





By now the emails have gone out and ward members are going to stay over at places with power, driven by those with cars capable of making the trips. Becky Carlson takes her leave of us. Tristan and Rachel stay overnight, and now I really wish Susan had decided to stay. In any event, at one point Rachel asks if we can put the candles at the corners of the table, so we can see it better. Adam says “or put them in a pentagon and summon something.” My response was “I think you mean a pentagram. Paganism fail.” We start playing a version of “Truth of Dare” that’s mostly just “Truth,” and I actually have a good time. The three questions I remember are, “when were you the saddest?” “when were you the happiest?” and “what’s the most outrageous thing you’ve ever done?” I go to bed before the question is asked “if you could make out with one person in the ward, no consequences, who would it be?”

Tristan wins for his answer to the outrageous question. He participated in a riot in Northern Ireland.

Sunday, February 7.

We invite all the poor people living in the nearby Parkside condominiums to come over and shower in hour hot water. Only Andrea Bassett shows up, and she takes what I think amounts to a 30 minute shower.

Since their power was also out, Susan and her roommate Marissa have stayed at Susan’s parent’s house. Susan’s sister Kirsten and brother-in-law Brent drive down from Northern Maryland for a joint birthday part for Susan and her mother, and they’re kind enough to pick me up on the way. Brent decides to be adventurous with the station wagon, and we have to spend 30 minutes digging it out of an intersection he shouldn’t have driven into in the first place.

The rest of the day I stay with the Mikkelsen’s eating food, helping shovel walks, playing Taboo (Susan’s Mom: “We don’t have to play boys against girls, we can play fair!”), and otherwise having a good time. I’m invited to stay the night, and do so, since our power is still out.

Monday, February 8.

Susan, Marissa, and I trudge over to their house, where there is power. Marissa decides to stay and do homework, while Susan and I get picked up to head over to friends house where Susan beats me at Settlers of Catan by 1 round! (Had I been sitting to Susan’s right, I would have won.) Beginner’s luck. Bah! Humbug! Power has been restored at my apartment, 60 hours after it went out.

Steve has, miraculously, made it back to DC and so we get his SUV back to him. Susan and Marissa decide to sleep over at our place because Round 2 of the snow is supposed to hit Tuesday morning starting at 9 a.m. and Susan and I really don’t want to spend another few days snowed in places where one can’t get to the other. They bring changes of clothes and other odds and ends, including Marissa’s hot chocolate maker, for a few days. As Heidi Johnson said, if you're going to get snowed in, get snowed in with friends.

We have a good group of friends over and we go sledding again that night. We should have replaced the garbage bags on our old sleds, and so it doesn’t work as well. The best way to go down is actually wearing a slick coat on your back.



Adam, Steve, Rachel, Marissa, Laura, and myself all stay in the apartment overnight.

Tuesday, February 9.

During the day we have a youtube party

It actually begins to snow at about 4 p.m. and we invite people to come over who want to. We get a few and now have a full-blown slumber party going at our place. Luckily, this time, the power doesn’t go out. Before it gets really snowy, we order a huge amount of Thai food. Some break off to other apartments, but we have a huge group playing Nertz (for about 4 hours!) as well as some Wii, other card games, etc. It’s just a great time. Wendy Nelson comes and this time we are actually home. We watch some Doctor Who streamed through Netflix, but sadly David Olson has gone home.




Wednesday, February 10.

Susan makes crepes for breakfast. We have nutella, peanut butter, cheese, lemon juice, various fruits, etc. I’m making myself hungry just thinking about it . . .



That night some of the people in our building have a “snowed in concert” in the lobby. Good times.



Worried about the meat in our freezer going bad, we have steak for dinner. Mmmmmmmm . . . Steve Ward’s cooking.



That night we play more Wii, card games, etc. and this time Ciara and Heidi join us, but Rachel has to go home to do her nanny thing. I Skype briefly with some family members, including my parents, who meet Susan for the first time even if neither party could hear the other very well.

Thursday, February 11.

It’s over. The snowplows are out in force and everybody can go home. We watch more youtube videos, this time mostly watching stand-up comedians. I cry because I’m laughing so hard at Bill Cosby’s skit on “Chocolate Cake for Breakfast.”

I head to Susan’s where I carve her car out of the snow while she makes the best French Onion Soup ever. In fact, I think her French Onion Soup is my new favorite meal. It’s just . . . perfect. (Meal doesn’t equal food, here. Ice Cream still wins, don’t worry. I haven’t gone crazy.) It’s nice to spend time alone with my girlfriend for the first time in about a week.

Here’s the pictures I posted to facebook of Snowmageddon. Some are repeats.

Anyway, pretty much all of DC was shut down for a week, so now it's back to school and work and whatnot. Ah well. Was a great week.

And here's a bonus picture apparently from Philadelphia. Someone had too much time on their hands, as well as snowcone juice (I think?).