Snow Days

Here's how UB celebrates a 20-degree day on the last Monday of January:

By waking up for a 9:00 class at 8:55;

By running to the bus stop only to miss the door as it closes and the bus pulls away;

By bumping into a good friend unexpectedly and feeling like the day, if only for a moment, is actually a little bit brighter because of it;

By having breakfast at Amy's Place or J.J.'s and thanking God for the 99-cent two egg deal;

By throwing on headphones and turning up the volume on the way to your next class;

By watching the clock on the wall move seemingly slower with every passing minute;

By holding the hand of a loved one while also holding onto a coffee from Starbucks as if they both were the last sources of warmth on earth;

By dodging traffic to cross Main Street and riding the bus to North campus (uncomfortably hot on it and uncomfortably cold off it);

By walking along Lake LaSalle from the CFA and wondering if there has ever been a more beautiful sight than the frozen snow-covered water or a more ugly set of buildings than Ellicott;

By wishing you had worn that knit hat while fighting off the wind as it slaps you across the face;

By wondering if a hot shower has ever felt this good and if any inventions have been more ingenious than Easy Mac and Ramen;

By curling up and falling asleep in the library then dozing off during class;

By tying to figure out where all your dining dollars went in only three weeks;

By maneuvering through hallway traffic and cramming before a class;

By cursing the winter and praying for spring;

By knowing that after four years here it is nearly impossible to walk through a building without seeing at least two faces you know and wondering whether anybody recognizes you too;

By taking the ice scraper out of the trunk and brushing snow off the car;

By planning spring-break (it just has to be warmer in Florida!);

By working out at Alumni and feeling good afterwards;

By sprinting across the Spine and thinking that if you run fast enough the cold might not catch up;

By appreciating the big old wooden table on the fourth floor of Lockwood and smiling back at the guy with the ever-present real big smile at Bert's who restocks the silverware;

By skipping class and blowing away the steam rising off the miso soup at the Korean restaurant in the Commons;

By handing in a paper that your pessimism tells you will surely get an F;

By trading smiles with a cute girl passing by and arriving at class early and enjoying the easy quiet before the professor walks in;

By bundling up while watching the snow fall and swirl and butterfly just above the pavement before it gently sits down and evaporates;

By looking for that nonexistent parking spot and listening to the snow under your feet;

By trekking across tundra-like parking lots and noticing how everywhere seems to take twice as long to get to outside in the cold;

By eating dinner in the Student Union and laughing with friends and shivering when someone opens the door and an icy wind slips inside where it runs wild before quietly disappearing;

By waltzing with stray cats and stepping over red cups left in the snow from the weekend's festivities in order to leave out a few bottles and cans for the scruffy homeless-looking man that's been living in the Heights since before you were born;

By taking off boots and wincing when you step in the cold puddle (in your socks) that the boots have just poured out on the floor;

By digging through the closet for extra socks and sweaters and turning up the heat and going to Wegmans to buy more rock salt and antifreeze;

By wondering if in all of UB's history there has ever been a day so awful, so wonderful, so cold and gray and good and exciting and dull all at once, and concluding that there hasn't and realizing either happily or miserably, that after tonight's run to Mighty Taco, tonight's movie, tonight's girls' night in/guys' night out, tonight's date, tonight's hangover, after tonight's one to three inches of snow, tonight's homework, tonight's poker game, tonight's 1 a.m. run to the Elli, tonight's two to six hours of sleep, that it will all start again tomorrow.