I had never heard anything quite like it. Literally, it sounded like ice was raining on my house.
Although I might be getting ahead of myself, I don’#39;t think ice rains. Rain rains, snow snows, so I guess it was actually icing on the house, but regardless it was certainly no picnic when I had to shovel it up the next morning.
It felt like I was trying to shovel a hockey rink. The news would refer to this as the Christmas Storm, and I’#39;ll be honest, it seemed pretty ironic to me. I mean, I heard story after story this year of schools taking Christmas trees out, and city halls giving nativity scenes the boot. Yet, as soon as there’#39;s something bad that can be associated with the holiday, we have to call it the ‘Christmas Storm’ — despite the fact it was a few days before the holiday.
Obviously, you could say that it was still the Christmas season, but the Christmas season begins in March, so I’#39;m not a huge fan of that excuse.
The weather put off my shopping, so I had to finish it up on Christmas Eve. I had to dig my car out. That was an adventure unto itself. I felt like someone on ‘Rescue 911’ trying to save someone. But I eventually did make it to the mall.
As I was coming home, a rickety pickup truck got stuck in front of me. And there was no way that I was going to leave them hanging … not to mention the fact that there was traffic, my back window was starting to fog and it was going to be very hard for me to get into the next lane anyway.
So I’#39;m trying to push this truck, and the road is still kind of slippery, and I keep trying to push this truck. I felt like I needed a tetanus shot just by looking at it. I eventually looked up at the driver, as he said, ‘I don’#39;t know what to do.’
It was at that point in time when I realized there were two people in the truck. I thought, ‘Well one of you guys could get out and help me push your truck.’
But two other men had gotten out of their cars, and the three of us got it freed from the slush. I’#39;m not making this up — by the time it took me to walk back to my car, the truck had gotten stuck again!
On Christmas morning, I came downstairs around 10, and was shocked to see that my mom had already taken the tree down. Why? I still don’#39;t know, I think she went crazy. The cat kept getting into it, and she said that she couldn’#39;t take it anymore.
Then there was New Year’#39;s. It’#39;s always weird when you go home, and you see friends who are younger and who aren’#39;t in college yet; and they think they know everything about college, when they don’#39;t really know anything.
For instance, I didn’#39;t do anything on New Year’#39;s Eve. I’#39;ve always thought that it’#39;s a little overrated. Someone who’#39;s in high school said, ‘Aw come on Josh, people in college are supposed to party for New Years.’
First of all, people who are in college don’#39;t really need reasons to party. And if they do have reasons, they’#39;re not always very good ones, such as Tuesday or Wednesday or ‘hey, today’#39;s date is divisible by the number two.’
I just decided to flip around the TV channels and watch the ball drop from Times Square. ABC had two minutes of commercials for about every 10 seconds of air time. Obviously 10 of those seconds was the actual countdown.
Every other free second was spent with people talking about how much they missed Dick Clark. It was heartwarming.
All in all, it was a pretty good break. Good time to unwind, and let my mind rest, see old friends and family. Saw Ohio State win big which was good.
But I didn’#39;t get the thing for Christmas that I really wanted. I mean, there’#39;s gotta be other people who want ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ to be released on DVD too.
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