Snow Day!

So after cancelling sub jobs the last 2 days, I was feeling better and ready to go back today. Or not. We knew the storm was coming last night, but didn't know if schools would be closed. I thought Linda gave it the kiss of death yesterday when she called to ask me to sub. "We'll probably have a snow day tomorrow," she said. Just her saying that convinced me it wouldn't happen.

This morning when the alarm went off at 6:00 and Stein got up, I turned on the TV. I couldn't help but be anxious with anticipation. Even though not going in meant that I wouldn't get paid, I still had that "what if we don't have school today?" feeling. I waited impatiently for all the counties to be listed. (It didn't help that I kept flipping between 2 channels and would miss the beginning of the county list where Ann Arbor District is located.) Finally I saw it listed. We had a snow day!

At 8:30 this morning Mickey called. She has a snow day today as well. We asked each other what was in store for the day. Neither one of us came up with an instant list of things that we were going to do. Maybe walk to the grocery store, maybe read a book for a book club, maybe nap, maybe cook a yummy dinner. That's the beauty of snow days. They're unplanned, spontaneous free days, waiting to be filled with anything.

I couldn't help but think of the days when I was in grammar school, waiting impatiently by the radio to hear if our school was called. Even though my Mom was a teacher at the school, for some reason she never knew if school was closed. Or did she? (Mom?) And they never announced the closings on TV. It was always on 2 different radio stations where it would be announced. As if waiting through the hundreds of schools being called wasn't enough, our school started with a Q (Queen of Angels) so it took extra long to get through most of the alphabet. It only got worse in high school. I went to St. Scholastica.

The waiting was always filled with enormous possibilities. Possibilities of having school and not having school. I remember dreaming of the latter. Playing in the snow, having the unfamiliar weekday shows to watch on TV, just being home when I should be in school. It had a feeling of being bad without getting caught.

And the excitement when our school was finally announced? Explosive. My siblings and I would do a cheer, and quickly get to doing what we dreamed of. I'm sure that it would've started with a bowl of Cocoa Wheats, our favorite warm cereal. Hmmm, that gives me an idea...

The best snow days were ones that were attached to a weekend. A Monday was the best, Fridays were cool too. Today I'm reveling in a Friday snow day filled with possibilities. Maybe some weekday TV watching, maybe some reading, maybe some napping, maybe some cooking. Maybe.