February

It is February!!! Already!!!!!!

I am going to be much disciplined in terms of writing this blog regularly, but it turns out I have not opted to do so. However, I will try to regularly do so going forward. That is all I can say.

February 1st.

Lot has happened since the beginning of this morning. To begin with- there was one of the worst blizzards in the history of Chicago that apparently fell on the same day as our 6th Wedding Anniversary. Excitingly I had purchased a Groupon ticket for a Romantic Swiss fondue at a restaurant called Gejas for that evening, which unfortunately, got cancelled - thanks to the GREAT blizzard. It indeed was some sort of a co-incidence as we had gotten married the day our ex king Gyanendra Bir Bikram had successfully taken a coup of our kingdom. Despite everyone getting nervous about the outcome, the groom, in this case- Mr. Dhungel had successfully made his way to my place without a slight problem. He was actually dancing which was a rare seen at Kathmandu as most grooms humbly sit inside the car. So the day of our marriage it was the coup d' etat and now on our 6th, the great blizzard.

So here we were on our 6th Anniversary, not being able to do anything. So we decided to have a dinner at the house. ( Pasta and Shrimp) No wine as I had an early morning work.

The blizzard day:

Alarm rings at 5:00. I usually wake up at 5:15am however, I had put a slight margin not sure what to expect the next morning as Weather emergency was already declared. I get out from my bed, look outside and see nothing but a dust of snow travelling everywhere. The street lamp was barely visible on the snow covered street. I check the schedule of the Metra ( the express train that is about 2 blocks away from my apartment) and there was nothing out of ordinary at the website. Phew! The Metra is running I thought. It actually takes me 20 min to get to downtown versus about 45 min if I take the regular train.

I hurriedly got ready and headed outside. Prasanna half asleep asked me if he needed to drop me off and I left saying, “it looks like the Metra is running."

Out I go and face myself with the fierce Blizzard. Since it was so early in the morning, the pavement was literraly covered with about 2 feet of snow. I struggled to walk towards the Metra Station covering my face that was pricked by the cold and forceful snow. Somehow I managed it.

Even though I had a big boot on (a Really big boot), it was hard walking on that snow. The resistance was hard.

I made it to the Metra, only to find out that was delayed by 2 hours. It was now 6:00am.

Shoot... I then walk towards the el (the regular train station. In Chicago, they call it el, like "L.") This was my plan B. Taking El meant, getting to work little bit late cause I was behind my regular routine. With the snow, I did not know what to expect. I called my work to let me colleagues know that I was going to be late.

At this point, I had literally given up walking on the pavement that was covered by 2 feet of snow. I started running on the middle of the road to make sure that I did not miss the train. Since the snow was soft, I was not too worried of falling down, even though, I somewhat had a phobia of falling down since that Boston incident. So in Boston, stupid me, I was running with my high heel of course, to catch the bus and boom... I land on the bridge that was covered by black ice. I fell so hard that I had to do 3 weeks worth of physical therapy. So with this on my mind, I was running, but carefully running to catch my train. And thank god! I did not Fall.

I manged to get to the station, and then had to wait another for 15 min. The road was empty, the train station was empty. It was still dark outside and the only thing you would see was the white snow covered street and the forceful sound of the wind blowing those snow away. Well at the end, I managed to get to work!!!! :) I go to work and the work is busy. Clients from NY calling... they have no idea how it is like here in Chicago most likely. I turn on the computer and another busy day begins!!!

On a side note- I did fell at the train station but it was nothing like the one in Boston. So to me, this was a win. I managed to get to work on the Blizzard day!

( the picture above is the picture of the lake shore drive. Before and after the blizzard)