Bad, Bad News

I really am not a complainer, and I hesitate to post this tirade, but I just received news that has sent me over the edge. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and you know what that means. Six more weeks of winter are on the horizon. When I shared this news with my roommate, she said, "Yeah, I love winter." For goodness sake, that is what everyone around here says. I am not a hater of winter, truly I love skiing, snowshoeing, and the snow. But enough is enough. This winter has sent storm after vicious storm from gray, inversion skies. This winter instead of roads, we have ice rinks. At least they appear that way. They are all white, and all you do is slide on them. Which wouldn't be so bad if they ever closed things down and you could stay at home, but no. The weather forecaster will say, "Visibility will be nonexistent at times during the morning commute " and so I turn on my little radio with hope in my heart, but alas school is not canceled, nor will it ever be according to my optimistic principal. And so I make the trek which doubles or triples its usual time, and I enjoy my talk radio, as I watch people slide across the freeway, or as I stay in the same spot for an hour waiting for an accident to clear. Once at school, I spend the morning bus duty scooping children out of snowbanks and off of the slick sidewalks where they have fallen. I numbly go into my class where I am greeted with the announcement that it will be an inside day. That means me and the kids all day, no breaks. I really do love them, but they run back from lunch before I come back from getting papers in my box. Then they converge around my desk, eyes peering at every bite I take. Then they comment, "Yum, I love carrots, can I have a carrot? What kind of soup is that? Can I have a taste?" Next they watch like a hawk to see if I have a treat that they can sweet talk me out of. I haven't been able to sneak a treat in a month. If that isn't a good reason for winter to be through, I don't know what is. I also love the wonderful winter sounds in my classroom which go something like this, "Cough, cough, sniffle, cough, sniffle, sniffle, cough." Which inevitably makes me go, Cough, cough, sniffle, cough, sniffle, sniffle, cough. It is a tragedy. I drive home and the turn onto the street before our apartment known as "Suicide turn." Then onto the ice rink of terror where there are no parking spots, only mounds of snow. You just gun it and plow through. Unfortunately, getting out is much more difficult. However, I did see the sun yesterday and it made me cry. Okay, it might have been the fact that I was running in the freezing cold air, but I know spring will be coming sometime and this year I really, really will appreciate it. (Mom, don't worry the roads really aren't as bad as I said, I may have embellished a tad to get my point across.)