Victory! In a winter wonderland

Did you know that it's snowy here in Chicago? Yes, in the winter it's cold, snowy, icy and windy. 

And when you drive places around here (like my boss does every day, from Indiana!) there is traffic. Yuck.

Actually, I'm pretty confident that traffic persists in Chicago in all types of weather for all possible reasons (my favorite reason for traffic from B: "It's Friday. There's always traffic on Fridays in Chicago."), but that's beside the point.

The point is that when the forecast says that snow will falling or roads will be icy or whatever, you should make plans to NOT drive in or around Chicago. Often during the weather forecast the weather official actually says too. They sometimes say: "It will be snowing tomorrow. Don't drive if you can avoid it. There will be delays. And traffic."

Yesterday when about four inches of snow fell upon Chicago it took my boss four hours to drive home to Indiana! Four hours!

It took me exactly 30 minutes on the train to get to Trader Joes where I sampled a meatball, bought three bottles of wine and some cookies. Within four hours after I left work I shopped, romped through the snow, did laundry, talked to my mom on the phone and made a pot of soup. Delicious. 

Whoo-hoo! In one last bit of El-related cheer - Julie B, B and I are going to hop on the CTA Santa Express this weekend! Ho-ho-ho!