It snowed! It snowed!

It snowed!  It snowed!

Remember when you were a kid and you'd wake up in the morning, look out the window excitedly, and jump around shouting those words?  Snow is so magical when you're a kid.  Now, I kind of hate it.

Sure, it's still pretty to look at, but the first thing I think when I see any amount of snow is, am I going to be able to drive in this stuff?.

I'm a good driver.  I grew up in the Midwest, so I'm used to snow and ice, but it still stresses me out.  Your car doesn't always go the direction you're pointing it in with snow and ice, which is really my biggest problem.  I mean, I'm pointing the steering wheel to the right, why am I going left?? 

One time, when The Kid was a baby, I took him along with my niece and nephew (who were eight and four at the time) to a meetup at a bookstore.  It had just started snowing when we left the house, and since we were only going to stay about an hour, I thought we'd be okay.

Huge.  Mistake.

When we came out of the bookstore, my car was covered in snow--inches of it.

What would normally be a fifteen minute drive home turned into a 90-minute struggle of getting stuck on icy hills in my little Saturn Ion sedan.  You can imagine what this was like with three small children in the car.  One kept yelling, "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!" as another helpfully suggested, "why don't you just get out and push the car up the hill?".

Other cars, presumably ones with four-wheel drive, were whipping around me.  Some honked, but none stopped to help.  The only reason I finally made it up the hill is that a salt truck came by and I was able to back up and follow his trail of gritty salvation.

This happened three times in that hour and a half.

By the time I got home, my steering wheel had very deep, very permanent holes in it--from my fingernails.  I could practically hear the *pop* as I pried my hands off the wheel.  I have never been happier to be home than I was at that moment.  I think I may have actually kissed my living room floor.

So, yeah.  I don't like snow so much anymore.  The only thing I like about it is that I have an excuse to do absolutely nothing but stay in my pajamas, drink tea, and eat cookies.

Come to think of it, maybe snow isn't so bad after all.