Me. Grew up in Eagle River, Alaska where it snows an average of 68 inches per year. I learned how to drive in the snow, ice, hail, sleet, etc. So, when I heard it was supposed to "snow" here, I was in disbelief. People go crazy about the snow here. Honestly, I was simply amused. I thought, "it doesn't snow here!" Boy, oh boy, was I wrong!
I experienced my first official snow day as a teacher on Thursday. A great perk of being a teacher (I'm sure I won't be saying that when I have to make up that day later in the year!). But, regardless, it's always nice to have an unexpected day off. Here's the catch, though. The company I work for as a snow-day policy in place that states if a teacher can "safely" get to work on a snow day, they must come in and work. If you choose not to work then you have to take a day without pay or a vacation day. I don't have any vacation pay saved up, and I wasn't going to take a day without pay, so I chose to go into work. My supervisor said to me, "as long as you go in for an hour, you get paid." I thought this was a deal of a lifetime. Go into work for an hour and get paid for an entire day. Sign me up.
I decided to car pool with my co-worker, Kim (also from Alaska). It took us about 1 hour to get to work (usually a 40 minute drive) mainly due to cautious drivers on the road. We finally get there and the first thing I do is check the messages. There is one message. It is our manager telling us that when we get the message we can go home because the director shut down the business for the day so everyone can get home safely before the weather gets worse. Yes, that's right, we drove all the way out there for nothing!
So, we head home and decide that we're going to stop for some lunch on the way. Little did we know that traffic in Gig Harbor was so bad that we would never actually get to our lunch destination of choice. Because there are several hills in Gig Harbor cars were slipping and sliding a lot. We got stuck behind a few cars but managed to get going again and on our way. We weren't able to get me back to my car, so I called my Dad to meet us at the grocery store to pick me up. He never actually made it to the grocery store. Traffic was literally stopped on the freeway. I decided to walk to Target, buy a pair of boots, and walk down to the freeway to meet him. I literally was walking down the side of Highway 16 looking for him. Not the safest endeavor, I know! In my defense though, traffic was not moving, not even an inch. I finally got to him after about 15 minutes and we got going again. We weren't able to make it to my Mom's house, so we stopped in at my brother's house for a while. About 6:00 p.m. we were finally able to get up to my Mom's house for dinner. Which meant I was gone for about 9 hours and accomplished nothing!
All in all, I think teaching preschool would have been easier than the traffic/snow trouble I endured that day. But, it definitely did teach me to never say never because it does snow here! :) Looks like it will be a white Christmas after all!
P.S. When I started this blog I had no intention of writing about this story, but I got a little carried away. Sorry if this bored you! Merry Christmas!
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