Round Two?

I'm sure that all of my fellow East Coasters will agree with me when I say:

THIS. IS. NOT. FUNNY. OR. PRETTY. ANYMORE.

Maryland was hit AGAIN today with a second blizzard. That's right, folks. Another blizzard; who ever heard of more than one blizzard in a winter, let alone the same week?!?! I feel like I've been cast in "The Day After Tomorrow". Buildings and houses are caving in all over the place, trees and cable wires are falling, snow plows are getting stuck in snow drifts, people have been without power for days, even a fire house in Baltimore was up in flames this morning! While I've enjoyed the much needed time off, this is getting a little ridiculous. Needless to say, I have been trapped and bored to tears. My niece and I did venture out into the neighborhood today and took a walk around. I will spare you the depressing snowy photos and just share this one from our walk with you:
So, you might be thinking "Ambs, whatever have you been doing to keep yourself busy these long, cold, blizzardy days?" Well, you might not know this about me but, I'm a bit of a TV junkie. Now, I am definitely [not] one of those people who plans their lives around television programs and rushes home just to see the newest episode when it airs. Ha! Those people are nutsy... I just have a few, select programs that I like to keep up with. Is that so wrong?

One such show is Greek on ABC Family. While it is an incredibly subdued version of the "Greek Life" that I experienced in college, it is also very realistic in some ways. The drama between houses, between sisters/brothers and between guys and girls are all things I can definitely relate to! And, now that the characters are starting to become upperclassmen, I can also relate to the not-so-long ago "oh crap, I'm about to graduate and be a grown up" feeling. The main sorority, ZBZ, reminds me a lot of Phi Mu. The relationships they have with the other sororities and fraternity boys also makes me very nostalgic for my "group" of Greek friends in college. I'm not going to lie, I generally go to sleep depressed that I'm a grown up and can't be an irresponsibly sorority girl anymore pretty much every Monday night. Oh, and it really helps that one of the frat boys, Cappie, is super hot!

I also very much enjoy the CSI series, preferably the New York version. I have been known on occasion to sit and watch episodes of CSI for more than 4 hours at a time. (Is it bad that I know that Spike shows re-runs of some version of CSI from 12-6 PM every weekday, and I generally watch at least one episode everyday after school? No? Ok good.) What do I like so much about this show? Well, I like to think of CSI of a little mini-movie. There is a definite beginning, middle and end in each and every episode. You don't have to have watched the last 4 weeks worth of episodes to understand what's going on. When the show ends, the viewer is left feeling completely satisfied with a successful mystery solved. That, and an hour of drooling over Detective Danny Messer AKA Carmine (Yes, this is his REAL name) Giovinazzo and his amazingly sexy New York accent....

I've recently gotten sucked into Shear Genius, mainly because it's the only decent reality show on TV right now. (Did I mention that I'm a sucker for reality TV?) If you've never seen the Bravo series, it's basically a bunch of hair stylists competing for $100,000. It's great because it sometimes gives you great ideas for new hair styles/techniques, but can also be super entertaining when the stylists royally screw up their models' poor heads! Luckily, Project Runway also started back up recently! I love this show and have ever since the very first season. I really like that I can sit at home and pretend to be a judge myself. It also inspires me to be a little bit more trendy in my day to day teacher wardrobe. Next season, I'd really love to start a sort of "Fantasy Football" Project Runway competition somehow... My reality TV drought will end soon enough though, as Survivor: Heroes vs. Villians premieres tomorrow night! Though I haven't gotten into the Survivor thing in a few years, this season brings back quite a few alumni whose struggles with the outdoors I did follow.

That's how I've been keeping myself (moderately) sane during this crazy weather phenomenon. How have you all been staying busy? Any good TV I should check out as I continue to be trapped in my own house?

Oh the weather outside is weather...

Well, I'm sure that most of you are sick of hearing about this blizzard that has taken over, and basically shut down, most of the East Coast. I will start off by apologizing: I'm sorry but this post will be yet another run down of the nasty, clumpy, white precipitation that is occuring right outside my very window. But, as one of those stuck inside, lonely, and bored during this great catastrophe, don't be too hard on us: there's not much else to talk about today. It has been snowing for about 24 hours at this point, and from the looks of the scene outside my window, it's not stopping. (That yard stick is at 21 inches, in case you couldn't tell)

We got to leave school early yesterday in preparation for the big storm, and it couldn't have been on a better day. The kids all knowing it was supposed to hit while they were in school PLUS getting out of school two hours early equaled mass chaos in 3rd grade. My students were basically bouncing off the walls by the time I unleashed them out my back door to the snow storm that was already starting. I wish I had pictures of their craziness - it was like they've never seen snow before!

Once I was able to leave, I headed to Dunkin Donuts, grabbed a coffee and settled in at home for a few days of relaxation and catching up on grading, thinking this was going to be a great weekend at home. Well, now that I've been home for approximately 20 hours, I'm keeping an ever growing list of things I SHOULD have done when I got off yesterday, before the snow started sticking to the roads...
- gone to the gym for about 2-3 hours, since I won't be seeing it for quite some time
- fought the crowds at the grocery store: this would have kept me out of my house for quite some time AND I would have given me some delicious treats to snack on
- fought the crowds at the liquor store: stuck inside with my parents for an unidentified period of time, pretty self explanatory
- taken a leisurely stroll around Michael's: hoping that jewelry making/scrapbooking will keep me sane
- wandered around Target: I just love Target, such a good time wasting store!
- gotten a 1 in the afternoon Happy Hour drink with some teachers from school
- driven to Wisp to snowboard like I was SUPPOSED to do this weekend FYI: I tried snowboarding down my front yard, didn't work out so well

So, here I am, bored, lonely and already feeling the effects of cabin fever. My dad made us go outside and shovel and clean off cars around 11 last night, and let me tell you it was a good idea! My car is already completely hidden by the snow, as is my mom's and we cleaned both of them off completely! I can't imagine what they would be like if we hadn't done that!

These are the times when living with my parents, though very cost efficient, is not super appealing. I wish that I was stuck at home with Antonio and some close friends, drinking wine, watching silly movies and playing board games. Is that too much to ask? Perhaps today would be a good day to seriously start the home search back up...

Anyways, since my neighborhood looks like this:

This is what my afternoon looks like:

A large cup of coffee (eventually to be replaced by an ever larger glass of wine), some blogging and internet surfing, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Wish me luck :o)

Taking the Plunge

First of all, I would like to say that I LOVE my new Macbook! It might not sparkly but what it lacks in glitz, it more than makes up for in cool features, cuteness, and coordination with my bedroom furniture. But I digress...

Today I did something I never in a million years thought that I would do. I participated in the 14th Annual MD State Troopers Polar Bear Plunge! Along with thousands of other crazy people, about 25 of my coworkers and their significant others braved the near blizzard to hop into the freezing cold Chesapeake Bay to benefit the Special Olympics. To give you a hint of how cold it was, the day's high was forecasted to be 23 degrees today.

We met up this morning as it was first starting to snow and bundled up to head to the beach. After we registered, got our sweatshirts and took a team photo, there were a ton of activities and tents to visit once we got to the park grounds. We started out in the Ice Lodge tent, which had a live band, tons of food and drink, and even some games going on! Then, we wandered over to the vendor tent and browsed the tables of things for sale. There was a Ravens station with SUPER cute items, but I somehow resisted. Instead, two of my coworkers, Jamie and Jaime, bought ourselves some cute snow gear. Mine is a moose/reindeer, you just can't see the antlers.

Speaking of the Ravens, the Ravenmaniacs were at the Plunge in full effect. They came in their loaded down, huge, purple school bus, dressed in head to toe Ravens gear. During football season, there is a huge feud around school between the Ravens, Redskins, and Steelers fans, so the Ravens fans of course had to take advantage of this photo op! There was also rumor that Ravens quarterback, Joe Flacco, was supposed to take a dip in the bay, but due to the snow they cancelled plunges later in the day.

Anyway, after wandering around, trying to stay warm for awhile, it was finally plunge time! (They didn't cancel plunges until AFTER we all hopped in at 1 PM...lucky us.) While some people stripped down to just their bathing suits and bare skin, I opted to keep my long sleeves on and rolled my leggings up instead. Let me tell you, even though I only went in to my knees, it was definitely more than enough plunging for me! A few of the people on our team went all out and dipped their heads under. Braver than me, that's for sure.

All in all, it was a great day! I was able to raise money and give my time (and body heat) for a really amazing cause. It was also really fun to hang out with some of my coworkers outside of an elementary school!

Snow Day!

At around 4:30, I got a call from my school system telling me that tomorrow is officially a SNOW DAY! Yes, I live in the part of the country that was literally covered by snow yesterday. As most of you know, I despite, hate, deplore, etc., snow or any type of wintry weather. I didn't think it was EVER going to stop falling!

I ventured out in the blustery weather to try cleaning off my car, help my niece build a snow-blob (man), and to take some pictures to document the crazy snowfall. Though I was around for the infamous Blizzard of 96, I was only about 9 years old and as a kid you don't realize how paralyzing that amount of snow can truly be!

I've spent the weekend baking Christmas cookies, grading papers, watching movies, cleaning my room, wrapping last minute gifts and eating. A lot unfortunately. I have not left my house, aside from walking in the neighborhood since Friday night; I am beginning to go crazy. However, as you can see, my car is currently parked on the sidewalk in front of my house and sadly, most likely not moving for at least one more day. To top it all off, Antonio is equally as stuck at his house 15 minutes away. I'm getting pretty lonely over here...

Kameron and I did spend some time exploring the neighborhood today. It was fun slipping around on the iced over streets and watching the crazy people try to drive around (and get stuck) in the snow. One guy got stuck directly in front of my house and my dad very nicely had to dig him out!

Even though being inside is starting to drive me crazy, I did get to watch a great Ravens win over the Bears today. And, I'm definitely liking the extended weekend this snow has given me. Now to try and stay warm (and away from the cookies...)

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