Purple Haze
Embracing cabin fever
By Lauren Bagian

Feb. 11, 2010

There is a lot of snow outside, but I’m sure that you all knew that without me stating the obvious. Every time I look out a window and see my buried car I seem to get slightly more infuriated. There’s nothing more frustrating to a teenager than getting stuck inside for an entire weekend with your precious baby--in my case a 1998 Subaru Legacy--covered in 3 feet of snow drifts. In my opinion, snow is just a form of white molasses. It makes you move slower, drive slower and bundling up causes the normal routine of zipping up your coat to escalate into a layering extravaganza and an expedition to dig your boots out of the bottom of the hall closet. Then there’s the thought of going outside in it; it’s cold, wet and it causes trees and telephone poles to beckon tauntingly to your back bumper. Maybe I’d see it differently if I skied, but I don’t, so I’m just a snow pessimist.

Yet, despite my ruined travel plans and never leaving my mountain all weekend, I probably had one of my most productive weekends in a long time. Why, you may ask? Because without being able to run around like a mad person thinking I’m being productive, but never really getting anything done, I was forced to move slowly and buckle down to get all my work done. I know, it sounds strange, but all that running around just creates distractions that make your to-do list longer to the point where you hit a stand-still without even knowing it.

I’ve realized that I didn’t sit around bored all last weekend when the snow drifts covered my front porch, but I tackled some projects, did some of my best writing and reconnected with my family, who it seems I haven’t really had quality time with in months! So though it may be frustrating, I’m telling you to embrace being snowed in every once and awhile, for you never know what you could accomplish by simply staying home for once. Who knows, maybe you’ll just save some gas money.