The Winter Storm of 2009...

So apparently winters in North Carolina are what most people would call mild. Usually 40's-50's with dips way down into the 20's and 30's. Infrequently, it "snows." Meaning a few inches of slushy, non-stick snow. When things get "bad," people panic. Bread, milk, and beer (the essentials I guess?) go flying off the shelves like New Moon posters in Santa's Secret Shoppe in Junior Highs around the country. This last weekend, we had several severe weather warnings for the weekend. The Meteorologists billed it as a disaster, even going so far as to call it "The Winter Storm of 2009." With this sort of reporting, it's no wonder that the storm was all anyone was talking about. People were saying things like, "We're getting snow this weekend", "I'm not going outside that," and "It's getting so bad that we may have to reinact The Lord of the Flies or the Donner Party and what-not." I mean I was worried...

I got off of work around 8PM on Friday, and headed out to a friend's house for a little Christmas socializing. There were about 1-2 inches of slushy snow on the ground, and half of the people cancelled their RSVPs for the party because of it. When I got to the hospital on Saturday morning, this "storm" had people terrified. Doctors, nurses, janitors and anyone else who worked in the hospital were making plans like, "I'm probably going to spend the entire weekend in the hospital," "I should have gone to the store last night to get bread and milk," or "I may have to sell everything I own to buy a gun to shoot myself... it's really my only option."

So when I got off of work on Sunday (after ~30 hours of work), I was terrified about what might await me on the outside. I figured even if all the predictions were overestimations, I was still going to be walking into Santa's front yard. And this is what terribleness awaited me as I walked out of the hospital...


You can imagine how cold I felt...

My Front Porch Looking In....

I have had a lot of ideas in my lifetime. Some good, some bad, and some terrible. One of my more recent terrible ideas was to sell all of my furniture prior to moving to NC from WI. It all made sense at the time. I would sell my stuff for about what I paid for it in Utah, take that money and spend it on new stuff in NC. Thus recouping some of the money I had spent in the first place and saving the moving expenses that I would need to get the aforementioned possessions to NC.

This sounds great on paper, but that’s where the greatness ended for me. Things went south, well, right at the beginning. So early, in fact, that I am not sure I ever actually headed north. The problem started with my underestimation of the WI-used-furniture market. To say that I underestimated the robust nature of the furniture market in WI, is like saying the Grand Canyon is big, War and Peace is long, or my dad is argumentative. None of these analogies comes close to adequately describing the epic failure that was my underestimation, the massive nature of the Grand Canyon, the effort required to read War and Peace, or the frequency and intensity with which my dad likes to give me the business.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Well since that epic failure, I have been replacing my old furniture bit by bit while at the same time paying down my credit cards. The precarious position in which I find myself, reminds me a lot of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. You know, finding a little something here and a little something there (I know it’s a stretch but bare with me… it’s the closest I’ll probably ever get to feeling like my mountain man older brother). So, bit by bit, I have been adding my collection. I started with a couch; and, through the suggestion of my sister, added the rug. The ottoman was my own, most recent, decision. To make a long story short, it’s started to make my living room feel like home. I realize that I still have a long way to go, but even the little additions have helped me feel much more at home. Which as far away as I am from my family at this time of year… means a lot.