SNOW!!!!

As I write, I'm in central Pennsylvania, sitting around a table in the library of my alma mater with a couple friends. We're in the basement, near the windows, where we'd normally have a perfect view of an employee parking lot.

But today, I can't see any cars. They're hidden from sight by the 6 foot (literally) hill of snow piled up outside the window. An adult standing on the other side of this machine-enhanced snowdrift would be just as hidden. Six feet: it's a wall of snow!

And more is coming. The forecast for this area predicts another foot or so tonight... starting about thirty minutes ago. This will be the third severe, more than a foot of snow, storm to hit the region in the past two weeks. But, oh, how beautiful the fluffy flakes look as they float down from the gray sky!

I'm sure I loved snow as a young child. There are numerous photographs of me playing in the snow: sledding, building snowmen, and just generally enjoying it. As I grew older, I appreciated snow more for its ability to get me out of school and work. I still played in the snow, and I can remember one especially epic snowball fight during little sibs weekend of my sophomore year, but generally, I tried to stay inside and warm.

Today, it's been absolutely thrilling to walk in the cold air that smells of snow (all bundled up in warm clothes, of course). I took off my gloves to grab a handful, delighting in its frozen wonder: it appears so solid, but crumbles into powder when I close my hands around it. It's good packing snow: I marveled for awhile at the almost-ice ball that stung my fingers. My sister and friends keep shying away when I head toward the drifts; they, having seen such for weeks, don't understand my profound excitement just to grasp it in my hands.

I'm not generally a fan of cold weather, and I've already had some moments in the past few days of feeling chilled to the bone. Today, though, wearing a fleece and coat and gloves and scarf and shoes with thick socks, on an afternoon that the locals described as "warm," I touched snow for the first time in two years. For the past few hours, every time I pass a window or thrust my bare hand into a snow drift, a huge smile has lit up my face. I probably haven't been this excited for snow in 15 or 20 years, but gosh, it's a grand time!

And on that note, I'm leaving the library and heading back into the open air, where I can feel the snowflakes on my face and I don't have to contain my excitement.

Let it snow!