i am more snowed in than i was previously

Last Thursday's "storm" here in Seattle wasn't such a big deal in terms of precipitation, but it made getting around the city really difficult. Saturday and Sunday's storms (notice the lack of quotation marks here) left us with probably 6" of snow on the ground, and it made getting around almost impossible. If you didn't have a car with 4wd and/or chains, you weren't going anywhere outside of walking/snowshoeing/cross-country skiing/sledding distance.

Thursday's "storm" may have caught us by surprise, but everyone was ready for this one. I went to the grocery store a block from my house to pick up some cleaning supplies on Saturday. The grocery store is a favorite of Microserfs, soccer moms, and foodies for whom money is no object. I frequent the store, despite being a poor grad student, because it's a block away. People normally come to this store to pick up just a few specialty ingredients for that night's dinner. When I went there on Saturday, I was surprised to see couples wandering around the store and filling multiple carts with a month's worth of groceries.

I had so much trouble getting out of my neighborhood after Thursday's "storm" that I knew getting to the airport yesterday was going to be quite the challenge. I had a gameplan: stay at a hotel Sunday night so I could take an airport shuttle to catch my 7 AM flight to Minneapolis. My only problem was getting to the hotel on Sunday. I called all the major cab companies - the ones who were open at all were not dispatching cars to my part of the city. The city suspended all bus routes that came even remotely close to my neighborhood. All of my friends with cars were either unable to get anywhere on the slippery roads or were out of town. I ended up calling a limo service to pick me up, and a lot of money later, I got to my hotel near the airport.

I had been compulsively checking the airport's website the night before I left to make sure my flight hadn't been canceled. The site suggested that everyone come at least two hours before their flight leaves, and to bring their own snacks because the airport stores were running out of everything. They also advised that everyone check their flight status before coming to the airport so they could try and limit the number of people who were stranded there by canceled flights. I checked the site again before I left the hotel at 4 AM, and my flight was still scheduled. By 4:30, I was in a mile-long line at the airport, and I learned my flight was canceled.

It's a pretty helpless feeling to be flying on your own, have your flight canceled, and to know that no airlines were going to fly out of there until at least 3 PM. I called Northwest while waiting for the ticketing counter to open. The nice woman I talked to rescheduled my flight, but the earliest flight she could find to Minneapolis was for the evening of Christmas. After scheduling that flight as a back-up, I called my parents to see if they could find an earlier flight online through a different airline. They were able to book me a flight for tonight, and helped me find another hotel for the night.

This hotel is much nicer than the one I was in Sunday night. I had a big suite, and I felt like it was sort of a waste to have all this room to myself. I called a couple of friends who had flights early this morning to see if they wanted to come stay here too. They did, along with their other roommate, and we had a blast. We went to the nearby mall and I found a swimming suit (in December!) to wear in the hotel's hot tub. We ate dinner out and then came back to the hotel to relax in the hot tub. We stayed up late chatting and having girly drinks. I'm bummed that I couldn't make it home yesterday, but it was really fun having a snowed-in slumber party.

I'm going to try the airport again in an hour or so. I hope the situation has improved since yesterday. I'm glad I got to get out of there after a few hours yesterday and get to a hotel. It was really sad seeing people who had changed their flights multiple times, all to no avail, and were wondering if they'd be home in time for Christmas. I hope the chaos is a little more under control now. It hasn't snowed since Sunday, and I'm guessing the airlines have received more de-icer after depleting their stock over the weekend. My friends who left this morning were able to get out, so I think I should be fine.