Preparing for Snowpocalypse

At home, 2 feet of snow is called "winter"....

In DC, it's already being billed as "Snowpocalypse" - Part 2, I guess. I missed the huge snowstorm that brought the city to a halt right before Christmas. Well, apparently I haven't entirely missed my chance to see Washingtonians freak out about snow. The forecast is calling for snow starting tomorrow morning (Friday) and continuing into Saturday. There could be 2 feet of accumulation when it's all over. NL can deal with that; DC not so much. The city could be shut down for days if it's as bad as they're predicting.

So, I rather belatedly realized today that I should go to Trader Joe's and stock up on groceries. Big mistake to leave it so late. I realized it as I was walking toward TJ's and saw the huge line of cars trying to get into the underground parking. Wow - I've never seen anything like it in my life. The line-up for the cash literally wrapped around the store twice. Trader Joe's is busy on an average day - it's not uncommon for the line to go right to the back, though it moves quickly. Well, tonight it wrapped around twice and that included people snaking through the middle aisles. It was crazy. I might as well have shopped for my groceries from the line. As it was, I had to constantly say "excuse me" to get around people in the queue. It wasn't all that orderly either - by the time I got to the cash register, I'd had 3 different people in front of me.

It's funny how seeing all the people made me start to panic! Well, "panic" is probably too strong a word. Let's say I became quite concerned with having enough provisions for the next few days in case everything is shut down. Between that concern and the crowds, I was just throwing stuff in my basket without even looking at the price. I ended up spending about twice as much as I usually do. I pity anyone who left it until later tonight to do their shopping - Trader Joe's was running out of some things when I was there at 5 pm.

I'm kind of excited about being hunkered down for my first DC snowstorm! I admit that my roommate (from Michigan) and I are somewhat amused by the panic.... but we do understand that this really isn't "winter" as DC knows it.