Baby, It's Cold Outside

Of my little grouping of friends I surround myself with at Drake, my friend from high school and I are the only two who absolutely adore the snow. We're from Colorado and that means it snows for a couple of days, and is usually gone by the next week. Apparently, this is not so in Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota or Wisconsin (where my friends are from). When it snows, it sticks around for quite a while, so they hate me for loving snow and hate the fact that Colorado snow goes away so quickly.

They may be pleased to hear that Colorado just experienced its first major blizzard since 2003 (which I missed since I was vacationing in New York) therefore our snow will be around for a while. The Denver Metro Area usually doesn't get overwhelming snow totals like the mountains do, but after almost 40 straight hours of blizzard-like conditions, my house received a good two feet of snow with drifts that covered our backyard fence.

Luckily enough, my family and I had nowhere to go during the blizzard and therefore were not one of the thousands of stranded motorists out on the roads that needed to be rescued by the National Guard. My family was safe and sound inside the house, watching the snow accumulate.

A friend of mine was not as lucky.

She's still in Iowa. Denver International Airport had to be shut down because of the blizzard conditions, canceling thousands of flights for holiday travelers, including her flight home. Originally, her flight was scheduled for the morning of Friday, December 22nd, but since her plane couldn't even leave Denver to get to Iowa, there was no chance of her coming back that day. Not only that, but large, state-wide sections of the highways were shut down so driving was not an option, and even if it was it would have been a foolish choice.

Here's another little problem: the dorms close on the 22nd, thus meaning that she had to check into a hotel before figuring out her traveling plans. She is currently staying in downtown Des Moines, and her parents got her a flight home for the 24th. Until then, she doesn't have much to do but watch HBO and get some snacks from the concierge lounge.