so i wanted to have my friends over last night for a mini-bonfire (because it had been soo nice outside earlier this week - nice with respect to the cold we are experiencing now). but my great love that is the midwest weather decided to dump THIS MUCH snow on us. the snow started at about 16:30 yesterday, and this picture was taken at maybe 22:00 at the latest. after snapping the picture to the left, i scanned over to the pool and wondered, where the hell did the summer go? it kind of slipped through my hands like, how appropriately, melting snow. it was a very good night to stay in, indeed! i cleaned my room a bit, got to watch conan, watched Redeye with dave and josh and kelsey. (under normal circumstances i would have written this movie off as ridiculous, but given that it is a wes craven movie, and knowing he also did the scream movies, the ridiculousness made sense so i could take Redeye with a grain of salt).

since today is saturday, i decided i would let myself sleep until i woke up. fortunately i woke up at 7am - naturally! and lounged in my luxurious bed for an hour watching the Today show. then i descended to the kitchen where i read the local newspaper (in which i've been published! even if it was only a letter, it was a good one) while enjoying my tea. i usually check the engagement/wedding announcement pages and the obits, to see if anyone i know is in either. there is also a section on "how illinois lawmakers voted in congress" and it's amazing to see how entirely and incredibly polarized we are even in illinois. every thursday afternoon when i read that section my mom hears me yelling at the paper.
ok so upon descending to the kitchen, i looked out the front door and thought: wow, kelsey had better bring a shovel with her and, i'm so glad my car gets a place in the garage! it was actually a beautiful day, sunshine and not a breeze or cloud in the sky. though everything was dripping when i went to my eye appointment.

yeah, my eye doctor just informed me that i have a slight astigmatism (sp). they never informed me of it before, but now that it's shown up in my other eye, they felt it was finally time to tell me. not that it's a bad thing at all, i guess i just have one more thing to keep in mind when ordering new contacts or whatever. i had them write the script out for me though because i want to check on one-eight-hundred-contacts b/c you can get miles for ordering them through the internet and i'd rather have them delivered directly to me so i don't have to wait a week and haul my ass into town.

another good thing about "being snowed in" is that it made me sit down and go through all my bills! however on my trajectory towards the mailbox i realized it might be days before they even come to pick up those five envelopes (or more) i'm sending out! no just kidding, since i gave my dad the remainder of my three cent stamps (left over from when i used to send letters par avion) he was more than willing to put my bills in the pile of his bills that need to go to the mailbox.


might it not have been the best idea to have one hand on my steering wheel and the other glued to my camera? i encourage the reader to examine the following images and judge for himself. to the left is what i found while leaving the driveway; looking at it now one could imagine they're white cats or snow owels. and one more thing. my mom said that the village has to plow the village streets with village plows. in other words, even if we can't dig ourselves out, we have to wait for the damn village to send the plows out to BFW. so this is the view from the driver's seat as i made my way to yoga class: doesn't this picture make you want to start singing over the river and through the woods...