We Survived the Thundersnow

Like most of Chicago, when the snow came, we'd had a few days of warning and were prepared. I had been sent home early on Tuesday afternoon from school, and luckily I'd taken the train and didn't have to deal with the early blizzard traffic. The gallery closed a couple of hours early, too, and Trevor, Juli, and Matt, had a few drinks late in the afternoon at our local bar before parting ways when the snow and wind really started to rip.

We listened to the thundersnow and watched it fall through the night, and then hunkered down on Wednesday after the storm--the gallery was closed so T. didn't have to go in, and schools were closed all over the Chicagoland area, including mine--to watch news coverage of the blizzard, futz around on our computers, nap, eat sandwiches, and finally, finally, watch our Netflix movie (Micmacs--quite enjoyable). That night Trevor took some photos on his walk with Henry.

The second picture is right outside of our building. They're (still) fixing our roof from the fire at the end of September, and some giant foam boards blew off the roof and landed on the sidewalk. Trevor claimed that they weren't heavy, but I contest they could have knocked him out if they'd hit him in the head. They're still sitting there, or at least, they were still there on Friday.

Not everyone was as lucky as we'd been on Tuesday night, though. My friend Angie had been coming home from After-Words bookstore (where she and I used to work together, and before that, CST), and her bus trip from Illinois and State to Wrigleyville wasn't altogether pleasant. And here, for the first ever guest spot on Archipelago (how exciting!), is Angie, with her account of the trek:

"I was on Lake Shore Drive during the winter madness. I got out of work early and caught the northbound 146 bus home at about 5:20 p.m. Things were slowly but surely moving and it took two hours to get from Michigan Avenue to just north of Fullerton Avenue and then we just stopped. The wind outside made it impossible to see more than a few feet. We could see the lights from the other cars but that was very limited. Luckily the bus was warm and dry and had a diesel engine so we didn’t run out of fuel and kept our spirits up. I must confess to getting very freaked out at times mostly when I heard the thunder and saw the lightning. Thunder snow may be a rare meteorological event, but it’s nothing you want to hear when you are sitting in a plastic bus!
 
The most frustrating was the lack of communication between the CTA and emergency services and us. No one from the outside was telling us anything. We had to rely on people’s smart phones and iPads to tell us what was going on. Our bus driver was even afraid to use his cell phone because it’s against the rules and he could be fired. I find that very disheartening that there is no central dispatch that connects all the drivers and they can’t contact anyone or have a direct line to anyone when it was needed the most. We had a great bus driver and his high spirits made things a lot easier.
 
So the hours were ticking slowly by and I must admit I was beginning to think that I would have to sleep on the bus and wait for morning. Around one in the morning we were beginning to see the fire department walking around outside checking on people in the cars surrounding our bus. One fireman came on board and said that they were going to get another bus to us on the southbound side to take us to a “warming station” and see where we would go from there.
 
We were finally bundled off the bus and had to cross the highway median to another bus already full of other stranded folks from buses and cars. It was a tight fit but we all wedged in and made our way slowly to St. Joseph’s hospital for the next part of our night. It was crowded and I was sweating into my very thick coat, but I was happy to be on a bus that moved! It seemed that everyone on the bus was still in good shaped but very tired and looking forward to being off the road and, hopefully, make it home.
 
After a slow crawl and some backing up we walked about a block into the hospital where we were greeted with hot drinks, blankets, food and to my GREAT relief, bathrooms! After eight hours on a bus I was doing a very elaborate pee pee dance let me tell you. I inhaled the bagel and orange that I got from the staff and was nice to sit and take off my coat. Unfortunately there was no transport out of the hospital and I spent the next seven hours trying to doze and think about how I was going to get home to my bed and a large pot of tea.
 
The hospital provided a hot breakfast of bagels, and oatmeal (the first and last I’ll ever eat I hope) with and apple and orange juice. It was warm and there so I ate and was grateful for a full tummy. My blizzard buddy Heather and I had had enough and along with a couple of other ladies decided we were going to the bus stop at Belmont and see if the busses were running. That bus stop was close enough to my place that if I made it that far I could chance the walk home. CTA bus tracker said that the 151 was running and we went for it. I never felt more out of shape in my life as when we were climbing over the snow. Some places were at least a couple of feet deep and no shovel had yet touched them. We were nearing the Belmont stop and there were busses lined up so we knew that they were at least on the road. We arrived at the bus stop and found another of our bus mates already at the stop. Every bus that went by wasn’t ours but we were hopeful and just when I had decided to walk, it arrived. The warm, moving bus took me the final blocks to my apartment and we saw men, women, children and dogs playing and running down the middle of Lake Shore Drive.
 
I was so happy to see my block, then my courtyard where the wind had not been kind and snow drifts had come up at least waist high in some places and the doors didn’t really want to close because of the all the packed snow. My apartment has never been so welcoming. I was never so glad to take off my clothes and put on my pajamas. I covered my eyes and plugged my ears and slept from 9 a.m. until at least 5:30 p.m. It was a great relief. After heating up some leftovers and making my long-dreamed-for pot of tea, I made my calls and was called by friends and relations checking in on me and catching me up on what had happened while I was stuck in the void. I went to bed again around midnight and slept through till eight this morning when my alarm went off. I was not looking forward to getting out again but it had to be done and I was not alone. The busses were running and they were full with people like me going to work and getting on with things."

Holy cow. All morning long T. and I had been watching footage of LSD, and poor Angie had spent the night there. I'm glad she's safe and sound, and can only imagine how good that pot of tea tasted. Just to end her story on a super high note, here's an image of her on a much, much happier day:

Thursday morning, T. got to go back to work, but MCC was still closed down, which meant another day off and a total monkey wrench in my class schedule. But I'm sure no one feels too bad for me, especially not my students. I spent most of the day grading papers, but still had time to do the laundry and watch two Tom Hanks movies (who knew he's appropriate movie material for a blizzard?).

And now, after five days away from school--some of it spent working, but much more of it spent watching movies, eating sandwiches (really delicious tomato sandwiches on this amazing sourdough from the Green Grocer), knitting (check out this scarf I finished for Maya!

And that's the very first time I've done a scarf with fringe--so exciting!), enjoying a date night with T. at Girl and the Goat (where we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of pescatarian options, especially the chick pea fritters and the grilled seppia), I finally have to go back to school tomorrow. Boo.

So, off I go. To sleep, or, rather, to bed to grade a few more creative writing assignments before falling asleep. And tonight, I shall dream of a world without thundersnow.