Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But the space heater is so delightful!
And since they don't plow the roads,
LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

The JVC East Class of 2009-2010 has the privilege of living on the East Coast during the snowiest winter on record. About 28 inches fell last Friday, and before a substantial amount of it could melt, we got smacked with another storm this past Wednesday, and it raged on through Thursday afternoon. It was so bad that ALL of our (the Jesuit volunteers’) offices were closed for two days. The teachers in our house still have today off, and we’re going into a three day weekend.

We’re supposed to host a Valentine’s Day party this weekend, so we’re doing our best to get ready for company. (The biggest development in trying to prepare the house—CHRISTINE FIXED THE VACUUM CLEANER!!!! We have not had a functioning vacuum EVER since we moved in. That’s right; our house had never been vacuumed before this week. Simple living is one thing, but that was ridiculous.) I made some red velvet cupcakes for the party. The recipe called for two ounces of red food coloring, but if I ever make them again I don’t think I’ll use so much. The dye is expensive, and those are some RED cupcakes!

I’m a little bummed out about the party happening this weekend, though, because I think I’m getting sick. I started feeling a little poorly around this time last week, and so I decided to take is easy and rest up. But we had company on Friday night and went to a Super Bowl part last Sunday. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night, so I woke up at five and just stayed awake. The following morning I awoke feeling worse than ever (I could hardly peel myself off of my bed in time for work), but I went in to the office anyway, popping Tylenol and drinking as much detox tea as I could find.


We decided at work that day that the coming storm would make the drive to work too dangerous for my coworkers to go to work. I would have been able to make it because I walk here, but if I had been running this place all by myself, all hell would have broken loose. Then, since the storm was just picking up speed on Wednesday night, Irma sent me a text message that the offices were closed again yesterday.


On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I slept for fourteen hours (told you I wasn’t feeling well!), and spent most of the day sitting still and reading. But yesterday (Thursday), cabin fever kicked in.


I woke up in a hurry, stripped my bed to wash the sheets, and started baking those cupcakes. As soon as they were finished, I finished the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed my room and put the bed back together. But I was still itchy for activity, so I walked downtown to run errands.


But I STILL had insane cabin fever, so despite how crummy I was feeling I went to the building I work in, put on my running shoes, and started running up and down the 23 flights of stairs for exercise. Then I did those 8-minute exercise videos in my office, which I watch in YouTube. Normally I sleep like a baby after exercise, but my muscles ached so badly and my throat was so sore that I didn’t fall asleep until around 3am.


It might go without saying that I don’t feel so hot today. The idea of company and a loud party over the weekend isn’t that appealing, but maybe I’ll perk up after some rest.


Work is a little nutty today—all of the medical transportation companies cancelled their services these past two days, so we had to scramble to reschedule a bunch of appointments for our clients. Now that that’s over, it’s slowed down. February has been oddly slow for us (knock on wood).