Seven Quick Takes, Snowpocalypse! Edition

1. My first week of work was amazing. My work is fascinating and my boss is kind and funny and brilliant and I’m learning so, so very much. I could go on and on with lots of adjectives about the office environment and the other attorneys and the in-building fitness center and the fancy little keycard that works the elevator and the parish two blocks away that has a 12:10 daily Mass and the pretzel stand across the street but you might start drowning in the enthusiasm so let’s leave the topic here: I think I’m going to love it.
2. You know what else I love? Not having any schoolwork. I’ll probably start to miss it again in a month or so, but right now I’m relishing the sensation of leaving work at 5:00 p.m. and realizing that I don’t have any obligatory reading or writing to do until the next morning at 8:00.
3. Which reminds me of one of my absolute peevy-est linguistic pet peeves. It drives me crazy—and I do mean CRAZY—when people use both the abbreviation to indicate time of day (i.e., a.m. or p.m.) and descriptive words like “in the morning” or “at night.” For example: “My flight left so early that I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. in the morning!” It’s redundant. And it sounds silly. If you do this, may I kindly request that you please stop? It would bring me so much joy. (For the record, I fully acknowledge that the strength of my emotional reactions to things like this is often inordinately great. This is a flaw in my character.)
4. In other news! In case you live under a rock: It’s snowing in DC. A lot. It’s been snowing since around 10:00 this morning and there’s probably an inch accumulated on the roads right now, although the worst of the storm is supposed to come overnight. I’ve heard forecasts predicting everything from 12 inches to 24, with a not-statistically-insignificant possibility of getting as much as 36 or 40.
5. Admittedly, that is a lot of snow. And apparently it doesn’t snow nearly as much in DC as it does in Michigan. But seriously? I would have expected a city located between Virginia and Maryland—a city disproportionately populated by adults in comparison with most of the country, I’d guess—to be a little bit less PANICKED!!! about the SNOW!!!!. !!. !!!. !. .
6. I, on the other hand, have been perfectly calm about the snow. This is partially because (A) dude, it’s just snow, but mostly because (B) I came back out to stay with David and Lauren for the duration of the blizzard. I probably would’ve been perfectly fine in my apartment on the Hill, but it’s much more comforting to be with my honorary DC family, just in case something does go wrong. Besides, they own more blankets than I do.
7. Speaking of blankets. Last night I went to dinner with some friends in Georgetown and on my way to the restaurant I walked past a man standing on the street corner, wrapped in an afghan and holding a tin can. I looked him in the eye and smiled, something I should be brave enough to do more often, and he smiled back and said, “I’m just trying to get ready for the storm, pretty.”

This morning I got on the Metro with my Smartrip card and moved from one warm sheltered place to another warm sheltered place to circumvent the possibility of having to suffer any minor inconvenience or discomfort during this storm. According to the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, on an average day in 2008 there were 6044 homeless people in the District of Columbia. Six thousand and forty-four, on any given day—and the number can’t have gone down since then.

So as the snow falls, and I admire its beauty from the safety of a home, I am praying for the men, women, and children in this area who will suffer more than usual from the effects of this storm. And I’m praying that those who have more than enough—churches, community groups, families, and individual people—will be moved to share that which they do not need with their brothers and sisters who have need of it. If you believe in God, will you please pray too?

Seven Quick Takes is hosted at Conversion Diary, which you ought to be reading.