Monday, January 25, 2016

Surviving the snowpocalypse

If you're located anywhere near the East coast of the United States, you heard about Winter Storm Jonas... which finally brought winter to my area in Maryland after an unusually warm December and January.

Anyways, we were told all about the impending blizzard all throughout last week, so we had time to prep for being snowed in to our little apartment for a few days. It was my roommate and I's first winter snow storm on our own and off a college campus, so we made sure we did everything we could to be safe, comfortable, and prepared for anything that could come our way. 


My roommate and I had plenty of time to run the grocery store to grab everything we needed to keep us fed for the next few days and longer, if need be. We made sure to stock up on gallons of water, bread, fruits, vegetables and baking ingredients to keep us going during the weekend.


Being cooped up inside all weekend made it easy to just snack throughout each day, so I made sure I had healthy and delicious snacks on hand, like vegetables, pita chips and hummus. There was also a lot of cookie eating, since we baked peanut butter cookies, but life is all about balance. 

Snow started falling on Friday evening and we knew it was going to stick around so we hunkered down. 

I had absolutely no plans for the weekend, so I did not set an alarm and couldn't wait to sleep in. When we woke up on Saturday morning, my little car was completely covered in snow! It continued to snow all day, so I focused on my editing work for our local newspaper and chilled, though it was hard to not get a little stir crazy. 


That evening, my roommate and I made interesting smoothies, cooked an amazing dinner (seen below), and then drank gin and tonics while we watched Tristan and Isolde. It was a snow day well spent.


On Sunday, we woke to find that it had stopped snowing, but besides that, not much had changed at all. My car was still covered in snow and the plow had not touched the roads by our apartment. I'm really not used to how Maryland handles snow, being from upstate New York. Instead of having designated plowing machines, like in my hometown, our little Maryland town has trucks with plows attached to the front. They are also quite slow to dealing with plowing the roads. It's definitely a cultural difference between the two areas. 


We heard a lot more action outside our apartment, so we decided to take a walk through town. Though the sidewalks weren't really cleared, we hiked to Main street and checked out how it was coping with all the snow. It was a nice adventure and it felt great to get out of the apartment.


Here are some suggestions for surviving the next blizzard:
  1. Stay updated with a weather app
  2. Own a shovel
  3. Get to the grocery store and stock up on necessities including food, water and batteries
  4. Find a new hobby and dive right in
  5. Cancel all your plans just in case it snows for a while
  6. Get snowed in with a friend!
  7. Combat boredom with books, movies, homework, baking, games, whatever
  8. Make sure you have candles, flashlights and blankets in case the power goes out
  9. Charge all your electronics while you have power 
  10. Use your time to be productive
  11. Do an at-home workout if you're inside for a while
  12. Cook something really elaborate while you have the time
  13. Play outside!
  14. Make sure your car has enough gas in it for when you can finally drive
  15. Have warm gloves and snow gear for when you have to shovel out your car
My roommate and I had a great weekend in the apartment and we still have one more day off since the university we work at is closed for a snow day!

How did you survive Jonas?

1 comment:

  1. I'm coping with the heat now by reading about snow. Sounds like you had a good time.

    ReplyDelete