Billy Joel: A Southern Snow Storm: Valentine's Day

I know, I know.  Once again, I'm lumping everything into one, large, catch-up post.

The Billy Joel concert was AMAZING!  Even Man-Child was impressed.  Billy (I can call him that because I love him so) exceeded my expectations.  I mean, come on.  He hasn't been on tour in YEARS and, let's be frank, he isn't the young man he used to be - but even so the show was OUTSTANDING and he played to a full house and, judging from the reaction of said full house he was fabulous.  And yes, it was SO much sweeter considering the good news I received on the previous Friday.  In fact, it was so great, that I would urge you to go if there is a tour date in your area.  You can check here.

There was only one "issue" during the event.  This concert covered a huge demographic.  There were youngsters, people my age and much older people.  One row ahead of us and just a few seats down was a couple.  A very inebriated couple.  A couple that insisted on standing throughout the show.  Despite the fact, that there was a much older woman sitting right behind them.  Despite the fact, that her son asked them politely, several times, to sit so his mother could see.  It almost escalated into an "incident."  Luckily, it didn't.

I have also determined that any concert I attend in the future will include a shuttle.  The hotel we stayed in had a free shuttle to and from the concert.  We had to reserve our spot for the ride in but it was first come, first serve on the return.  This was a fabulous perk that the hotel offered and we loved it.  One person though was not to thrilled when she discovered that she didn't get a seat on the first return trip.  In fact, she let this pretty much ruin her evening.  Oh well, shame on her.  It was a beautiful evening and the rest of us were content to wait our turn.

Turns out, just about everyone staying in the hotel that night went to the concert.  And everyone that we spoke to enjoyed it as much as we had.  With the exception of the one lady; but I think we all figured out pretty quickly that she is one of those people who is never happy with anything.  We all felt rather sorry for her boyfriend/husband.

The Monday after the concert was a day spent driving.  Endless hours of driving.  I had to take Man-Child back to school from Raleigh.  Raleigh is easily an hour and half drive from our home.  Man-Child's school is two hours from our home.  You do the math.

The worst part?  It started to snow.  The trip DOWN the mountain was a very tense one for me - this Texas gal who has NO idea what to do when the white stuff starts to fall.  Luckily, at that point it wasn't sticking.

Tuesday was rather uneventful.

Wednesday, the weathermen were in rare form.  All week long they'd be forecasting crazy amounts of snow and ice.  And for once they were right on the money with their forecasts.  Right down to the hour that it would begin.

Usually here the predictions are that we will get dumped on.  And usually, those predictions are wrong.  Not this time.

Depending on where you live in our area, it was anywhere between six to ten inches of the white stuff.  And then it froze.  And then it snowed again.  It was crazy.

For the first time in the history of the company, we were told to go home early and to stay home if we didn't feel comfortable driving the next day.  Of course, the entire workforce stayed home on Thursday.

I'd never seen anything like it - and I think we only got about six inches.  We were paralyzed.  We couldn't get out of the house.  Well, not with our cars.  We did walk up to main road just to see what it looked like.  It was fine.

Toward the end of the day on Thursday, I thought I was going to lose my mind.  Not so much because I was at home but more because of knowing that I COULDN'T leave.  And the horrible television.

Finally, about 4:00 pm, a snow plow came through the neighborhood and we cheered.  Well, I cheered.  Escape finally seemed possible!  Hubby was able to get out around 5:00 pm and made a run to the grocery store.

I was able to get out late this morning (albeit with white knuckles as I maneuvered my way out of the ice-riddled streets of the neighborhood) to make it to work.  A majority of my co-workers couldn't get out at all (those are the ones that ended up with ten inches!).

So now, I can say, that I've survived an actual snow storm (well, a "snow storm" by Southern standards anyway - hopefully that won't happen again any time soon!)

And then this - today is, of course, Valentine's Day.  As a couple, we've never been big on this holiday.  Well, maybe eons ago, when we were young and childless we were a tad more into it.  But now?  Not so much.  Now, we'll exchange cards and maybe the Hubby will bring me flowers.  Maybe dinner out.  And that's fine with me.  Really.  The fact that he spent two hours shoveling our driveway yesterday means more to me than dinner out or flowers.  That tells me how much he loves me more than flowers.

Although the beautiful tulips he brought home tonight are pretty awesome too.