The Week When Time Stood Still

Those of us living in the DC area received a little gift from Mother Nature called Snowmaggedon 2010. I say gift because, unless you were in one of the areas that experienced power outages - and I feel for those who were, you probably got several unexpected days off from work and your kids got several days off from school. In total, most DMV residents got about 10 days off! For a period of about 4 days, everything was shut down. While some people grumbled about it, I loved it. Once I got back home from being stranded in Nashville a day longer than planned, I was happy as a lark. No commuting an hour back and forth to work in the freezing temps, trekking to and from the metro. No going into the office working on some project that I really could care less about. No rushing home in the evenings, exhausted and slapping together a quick dinner before herding the masses off to bed. None of it! Just a leisurely week of downtime, laughter, and quality time with my family.

We painted a ceramic caterpillar piggy bank; we made a bread pudding just for Dad; we played "bowling" in the family room; we made stuffed friends at Build-a-Bear; we went out for lunch; we made a chocolate ice cream "Mud Pie;" we made candy bead necklaces; we watched movies; we even did "school" one day. It was great.

I think what I appreciated most was the lack of time constraints. The rushing that my day-to-day life involves really wears on my soul. We had no deadlines, no worries of being late anywhere, no real need to adhere to a strict bedtime. For a whole week, time stood still.

And now I'm late again.