Snowpocalypse Part II / Cabin Fever

I'm sitting in bed enjoying my essential oils diffuser.

It is diffusing a doterra (that's a company) calming blend of lavender, sweet marjoram, Roman chamomile, ylang ylang, Hawaiian sandalwood, and vanilla oils and extracts.

Yes, I just read the label. Now I want to go shopping for some of these pure oils like chamomile and marjoram. The blend is called "Serenity" and man, it smells good when you can smell it.

Whenever I'm lying down and trying to fall asleep (prime time to enjoy "Serenity" or any other essential oil) I get all stuffed up and can't smell a dang thing. That's why I'm sitting up. It's sort of helping. Sometimes if I breathe with my mouth open in can taste the smells in the air. Great, right?

It's morning, like 7:30 morning, and I am voluntarily awake. I have spent the past two days inside in front of the fireplace working on all possible things. I even put all of my clothes away.

You see, the snowpocalypse actually happened. It gave the media plenty to do. They have named the storm "Jonas," pointed out that you can see the storm from space (as you can probably see most storms if you look hard enough), and have gone so far as to call it "The Storm of a Generation."

A generation.

Which generation? And don't you remember all those other big snowstorms you've reported?

I'd call it the storm of a generation if its results looked a little more like the previews did for "the Day after Tomorrow." Come on!

It would be better if I woke up later, because if I were asleep I would not be experiencing cabin fever.

I'm pretty sure cabin fever is what people out west in the pioneer days used to experience when it snowed so high they couldn't see out their windows and they might never make it back home if they went out for firewood (once again: we think we have it bad). They would be stuck inside all winter and go crazy. Hm, I'm going to have to look this up and get back to you to see if cabin fever truly was a kind of illness in those days.

In 2016 America, our attention spans have shortened some and two days inside can have similar effects to an entire winter's effects on a pioneer. 

I will go out today because my sanity depends on it. In feel like my blood is in the same locale in my body as it was two days ago because I have barely moved (except running up and down the stairs many times to get chargers and books and things - offerings at the altar of the fireplace).

I plan to write until it is time to get up.

Don't worry, that's soon.

If only I could greet every day with the same kind of bored get-me-out-of-this-bed i-don't-care-how attitude. Well, maybe not.

There's simply nothing to do anymore. You know all of those things you'll do when you have time? Well, I either did them or realized I never wanted to in the first place. I learned long ago never to tell Mom there's nothing to do because she likes bringing up things I don't want to do. I don't need her help when it comes to "things to do."

My friend once shared this with me: "We are human BEings, not human DOings." I think about this a lot, since my life is centered around doing things, seeing people, smelling oils, going places - what does it mean to just be? Can I be and do at the same time? Do I have to meditate and do yoga in order to fulfill my destiny as a being? Because it's impossible to sit still when there's a world of DO's.

I also made and photographed jewelry during the snowstorm. My Etsy shop is called GroundPickerJewelry.

Shameless plug. Get out of bed, my people, and enjoy that day of yours!

Snowpocalypse

I'm thinking about a lot of things today.

1) the approaching snowpocalypse in the northeast of the united states and whether or not it actually is approaching.

2) visions of my cats and I stretched for days on end in front of the blazing fireplace with nothing to do but

Blog
Make jewelry
Do art
Diffuse essential oils
Do snow photoshoots
Clean
Drink coffee
Edit said photoshoot photos
Write in journal

3) how the impending snowmageddon (term given to me by a friend) (snowpocalypse came to me via "popocalypse" - when the pope came to Philly) is keeping me from making commission, hourly, and tips today

4) how much power meteorologists have over the public

For example, it has not started precipitating in any way yet and SEPTA is closed for all of tomorrow.

 

*Public transportation of every form will be closed in the southeast of PA for an entire day because important people put value in what other important people say.*

Those important people are proficient in predicting weather as a result of schooling, continued education, and experience in the field.

I am also considering a "hypothetical" predicament. Consider the following: Friday is "Free Wax" day. Sara comes on Friday knowing she can get anything she wants waxed for free, but is turned away because her hair is too short to wax.  She reschedules for a week from that day when her hair will be long enough.

 

Question #1) when Sara returns in a week to get waxed, should the center extend last week's free waxing promotion to her?

Question #2) what if Sara believes her service will be free because of her special circumstances only to discover AFTER receiving the service that she is going to be charged full price?

Write out a comment to see what "Hypothetically" happened and how I "Hypothetically" feel about this.

Did you know that the Pope also went to Kenya? I heard it was an even bigger deal than when Obama visited. It's funny what shows up on the news and what doesn't.

Oh, just so you know, I wrote most of this article before it started snowing.  My dad drove me home from work and his snow tires performed wonderfully.  When I get a new car, I'm getting snow tires so I can be just like him.  I observed many people driving cautiously and appreciate the community effort to avoid collisions.  I can't help but feel, though, as the inch of snow lays atop the asphalt, that a visitor from Minnesota or Massachusetts might think we Pennsylvanians handle snow poorly.  "One inch of snow and these idiots freak out!"

There is a book, "Left of Bang," sitting next to me.  It's written by a Marine General all about trusting and improving one's instinct and danger detection in all areas of life. 

Perhaps that is why the leader of SEPTA decided to shut everything down tomorrow; maybe he read "Left of Bang" and chose to follow his heart.

Foggy Morning/Straight Outta Compton

There's nothing quite like a frigid morning traffic light with fog rising from every car's tailpipe into the new morning's air.

Poetic, right?

That was a morning not long ago.

I almost didn't pay attention because of my typical internal morning brain fog. 

I had decided to forego scraping off my windshield that morning and often the cold, bright sunlight caught the crystals on my windshield, blinding me and making me nervous about living on the edge of safety. 

I swear everyone else on the road that day parks in a garage. There was no evidence frost on any other car I passed. 

I felt very conspicuous. 

Anyhow, beautiful, ephemeral fog.

I'm pretty sure ephemeral means "doesn't last."

-

Nothing gold can stay.

Is that by Robert Frost? I could look it up.

I watched "Straight Outta Compton" last night with my friends.  I'm going to try to connect it to the fog in a few ways. 1)There was lots of smoking which looked like fog.  2)There were lots of shots of cars and several incidents of dangerous driving.  3)Friendships, lives, poverty, and riches came and went like fog.

My friend said the movie has a low "rewatchability" factor and I agree.  But I wanted to watch it in order to understand how, well, how everything.

The movie gave me pathos for the characters (which is what I was hoping for) and an image to pull to my mind if anyone starts talking about EZE or Tupac or Snoop or Ice Cube.  I have to trust that the movie stuck to history, but if I do then I can hold a conversation with someone about why Dr. Dre started "Aftermath" or why Ice Cube went solo.

How cool is that?

I need to watch more movies about real stuff.

I had wanted to watch the movie with my dad.  I had thought it might be a cool bonding experience since sometimes the two of us bond over watching something on the history channel for much longer than we expected.

Boy am I glad I didn't! I'm sure the party scenes are all in the name of historical accuracy, but these parties seem to be the kind where only the pretty girls are allowed in and they check most of their clothes at the door. And I mean most of them.

Just be aware of that.

Good movie.  Straight Outta Compton.

Air Force

I was out swing dancing the other night.

Swing dancing is a great way to spend a Saturday night and meet new people.  You're supposed to ask each other to dance, so it's always entirely platonic, except when people who met at swing get married.

I was in the bathroom putting makeup on because I hadn't had time before I drove over.

I hadn't known before the gravity of the role the bathroom plays in the social dynamic of Saturday night swing.

Young middle school/high school age girls came in and left tittering about, "I saw you dancing with him and your face was SO red!" - "Nuh-uh - WAS it?!"

Other girls came and had important conversations while fixing their faces in the mirror.

The one I remember, though, is a posse of three led by an alpha female in a with dark hair and dark red lips.  The triumvirate had been discussing boys, of course, but in this case they were talking about whether or not so-and-so is going to the Air Force academy and whether or not he would make it through.

One girl mentioned someone she knew in the military who doesn't smile anymore.
(Dumbass - it's the military, they take things seriously.)

And Alpha female speaks up as she suavely reapplies her lipstick, "Listen. I've BEEN to the Air Force academy.  I've APPLIED to the air force academy.  I've been ACCEPTED to the Air Force academy...."

And I'm not sure exactly what her point was except to impress her friends and maybe in doing so pretend to possess the great gift of discernment between real military men and duds.  I'm not sure if she's going or not.

As she and her friends pranced out of the bathroom peace was restored to my heart.

Okay.  Seriously, girl.

You don't just fling stuff like that around.  Being accepted into the Air Force academy is a HUGE deal and you are inserting it into this conversation to glorify yourself. Let's talk about how amazing it is that you heard so-and-so wants to serve his country instead of bringing up a college you visited but decided not to attend.

-

I also danced that night with a disturbingly delusional young man.  He made wild statements like "I'm from another planet and am here to enslave the entire human race" and "I am the deity in my own cult, along with Zach and Cody from that television show a while back," and "I'm a lawyer representing all birds who hit windows at night and are injured."

Thing is, he never broke character.  His character kept changing, which was disturbing as well.  I thought the "enslaving human race" line was just a really horrible icebreaker and he would break from his delusions and go, "Just kidding, I'm not [insert alien-sounding name here], I'm Johnny." But he didn't.  It was the first dance in which I considered leaving my partner on the dance floor in the middle of the dance.  I was beyond disturbed.

I had a friend do reconnaissance and he found that a few other girls had the same experience.

-

My favorite vignette is me talking to a girl about my tattoo in the back room between the bathrooms and the dance room.  The conversation morphed into tattoos she wanted, which were all kind of funny if one were to enter the conversation at the wrong time.  And it just so happened that we were spaced kind of perfectly so that people had to walk through us to get to the water fountain or to the bathrooms just as she was saying loudly, "I want a tramp stamp pentagram so when I'm changing as a firefighter I look badass!"

Which is pretty badass because being a firefighter is another way one can serve one's country, and because she's creative enough to think of things like how and when her tattoo will be revealed.

It just killed me, though, to hear her yelling the word "tramp stamp" through several people.

But I guess people should mind their own business.

-

Did I just say people should mind their own business? Disregard scenario number one.