When the weather outside is frightful...

I’ve been coined the Grinch of Halloween for several years now- which might make the perfect costume. I don’t necessarily abhor the dark Holiday dedicated to things that are dead or scary or scary because they’re dead. I just find it annoying. I don’t always boycott the traditions and have even been known to wear a costume although it’s always a contender for least creative and may or may not still have the tags on it from being purchased the night before. So sue me if every year I put out an empty bowl for the trick-or-treaters that says “Please take one”. And go ahead and call me Un-American for not shoving my adult nooks and crannies into a child-size costume. Just because you can wear it, doesn’t mean you should ladies...

I finally discovered this year that it isn’t the Vamps and Tramps or the incessant door bell ringing and “trick or treat” being yelled in my face (wait, didn’t you see the bowl!?) that bother me about this holiday. It bothers me like back to school commercials in mid-August bother me. It represents what has become a miserable time of year.

Anytime I had visited New York, prior to moving here, it was winter time. I loved the Macy’s store windows decked out for Christmas, the giant Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center and the constant brisk chill in the air. It was that same chill that forced me to buy my first wool coat while visiting New York for the first time one November. I had arrived unknowingly dressed for Jersey Shore rather than Manhattan. I didn’t wear that coat again for years until I finally came to New York for good.

I even moved to NYC on January 1st- smack dab in the middle of winter. You could say I might have had a slight fascination with winter at that point. I think every San Diegan, having been raised at the beach, grows up longing for a Winter Wonderland-a so-called White Christmas or a reason to light a fire at Thanksgiving. I spent my last Christmas in San Diego at Disneyland in my usual shorts and flip flops. Winter and snow is synonymous with football weather, how could that be bad?!

It was in this honeymoon period with Frosty that I ran into some great friends at the mall last September. While catching up over food court munchies, the topic of the impending winter was also on the table. Our friends had come to the solid conclusion that they were not going to live through another New York winter. At the time, Winter and I were still fine acquaintances. I didn’t mind when the cold would slowly creep into our lives after a miserably hot NY summer. I actually got excited to dig out my winter clothes- it was like shopping, there was always a favorite sweater or pair of boots I had forgotten all about. At the time of seeing our friends so unhappy with the cold, I thought they were being a bit dramatic. But months later when they had picked up and moved to Nice France, living it up on the French Riviera and I was spending countless hours digging to China trying to make headway in the snow to find my car... I thought they were brilliant. My love affair with Jack Frost ended last year.

Twas the day after Christmas last year, and like Santa Claus, the snow tiptoed into the city overnight except no one was happy about the gift Mother Nature had in tow. It was soon to be known as the snow storm of the century, breaking records for the most consecutive days New York had snow on the ground. In one word, it was miserable.

In the months prior,  all of the usual signs of winter were present, just no snow itself. Tourists, fascinated with the city’s holiday attractions were wearing scarves months earlier than the locals. Ice cream shoppes were closed for the season and almost everyone had gotten rid of any evidence of outdoor seating. After having a beer with some out-of-town friends at an outdoor cafe in Central Park in mid-november, I thought we might actually be in the clear. I was wrong.

When the snow finally blanketed the tri-state area, it never left. Day after day, sometimes several times a day, I had to dig the car out of a snow bank. This is a science in itself in the city. Parked bumper to bumper on tight streets with narrow sidewalks, there is literally nowhere for shoveled snow to go... except onto the cars parked next to you when no one is looking.

The permanent layer of snow eventually turned black like the rest of the city, as it refused to melt. Parking became horrendous as shoveled snow took coveted parking spots. Abandoned Christmas trees piled up in the streets as trash collectors were at the mercy of the snow plows. People became angry and meaner than usual.

It finally became the end of February and the snow was only just starting to disappear. I remember walking by an old Church in Hoboken that yearly serves as a Christmas Tree stand. Evidence that we had all been taken by surprise by this storm came in the form of tightly wrapped unsold Christmas trees, piled high & only halfway revealed, still green from being completely preserved in the snow. Hoboken became a time capsule as the snow finally melted. After being covered for months, everyone’s Christmas trash was revealed and finally picked up. Shreds of Christmas wrapping paper flew down the streets and boxes that once housed new toys cluttered the sidewalks for pick up. It was a very eerie scene. Spring couldn’t have come fast enough.

Everyone thought this severe storm could only mean that we were in for a punishing summer. That thankfully wasn’t the case. Although I consider enduring a hurricane pretty punishing.

As if we didn’t have our fill of eternal winter, we were again caught by surprise. This time by EARLY snow. You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Sitting on my couch on Saturday of Halloween weekend, enjoying my coffee as usual,  I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was that snow? At the beach? In October?! What?!

I was surprised and depressed. I hadn’t retrieved any of my winter clothes from storage as it seems I had just put them away. I haven’t bought a new snow shovel or windshield scraper either. I was again.. caught unprepared. Damn winter!

New York City received 2.9 inches of snow this past weekend, the most in October since records were first kept in 1869, according to the National Weather Service! Before Oct. 29, the city hadn't received as much as an inch during October since the 19th century. 300,000 people are still without power on this side of the world. Tree branches haven’t even lost their leaves yet, making the additional snow too much to bear and snapping them like twigs, causing chaos all over the place.

The scariest part of this Halloween is the realization that this is not the Winter Wonderland I had imagined...