First, I love to watch Milo prance and hop around in the snow (video coming if I ever edit the 5+ minutes of footage I took the other morning). Second, I used to love playing in the snow and getting to stay home from school, holing up inside after freezing my fingers off creating snowballs, forts and other sculptural escapades.
My first reaction when I saw the snow smothering the streets of Chicago on Saturday evening (my birthday!) was lots of sighing and moaning. WHY TODAY? WHY more snow when I just finished digging out the backyard for Milo the day before? Why did I have to be born in winter?! What were my parents thinking?!?!
This was all THEIR FAULT!
Reason eventually crept back into the picture and I was determined to not let the blizzard ruin our dinner.
Andy checked the CTA bus tracker and saw that two buses were headed our way in 7 and 12 minutes respectively. The snow was still really coming down and Andy realized he'd had forgotten his hat in his other coat. Not wanting to miss the bus, he decided that it wasn't all that important since we'd be on the bus in ONLY SEVEN MINUTES, anyway. (Can you tell where this is going?) After 30 minutes at the bus stop, my resolve to make the best of things was crumbling faster than Britney's music career. I was teetering on the edge of a full-out tantrum.
This was Andy's fault! Why did he have to always be so early for everything? I bet he lied to me about what time the bus was coming! His head and torso are actually accumulating measurable inches of snow! Why didn't he just run back inside for his hat? He obviously knew we had the time since he lied to me about the stupid bus schedule!
At this point, we'd waited so long for the bus that I refused Andy's suggestion to "just take a cab". A cab! NO WAY! We have waited THIS long for a bus and we are NOT going to waste our time spent in the freezing cold by investing in an expensive cab ride!
(I was obviously thinking clearly and rationally.)
My fingers and toes were numb, my legs stiff with cold and Andy's naked head (!rage!) was soaked with melted snow. Defeated tears burned my frozen eyes, and I told Andy that I just wanted to go home. We had missed our fancy dinner reservation and still no bus in sight.
Back in the warm, sanity-restoring apartment, Andy tried to save the day by making new fancy dinner reservations for the next night.
It was then that I realized I was actually ruining my birthday for both of us.
This brings me back to how this long post started. Embracing the winter and finding the good in it. I decided that I didn't need a fancy dinner (though, oh boy, was it good), a surprise party or some secret, romantic plan to have a good birthday.
Instead, we built a snow turtle in the backyard, ordered pizza and holed up in the apartment, watching Arrested Development.
The original idea was to build a snowman, but the snow was too cold and wouldn't pack right, so we phoned it in with a turtle (this one's for you, Keith!).
There's no water in that bottle, I can assure you.
Milo helped while I made snow angels.
Andy showed the turtle who's boss.
I think the empty bottle of Delirium Noel (delicious!) might have had something to do with that picture.
Milo was not a fan of Sheldon other than his peppermint patty eyes. He circled while we built, looking for an opportunity to swoop in and end the turtle's life with one, steady stream of urine.
His need to make Sheldon disappear could be coming from the number of times we tried to make him ride the turtle for a picture.
He eventually gave in though he refused to look at the camera. (You could see his shame for us in his eyes, trust me.)
Um, yes, he's only wearing one boot. We are totally responsible pet owners.
Good drinks, good company, good pizza and Buster Bluth. That's about as happy as it gets.
More on the fancy dinner (with photos!) later.
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