Thursday, December 6, 2007

Let it snow, let it snow

“Just come back”. My mother was telling me gently over the phone. I had called her once again to yell and rant. It had been an hour and I was stuck in a mother-of-all traffic jams on my way to work. It had taken me one whole hour to go a mile and half. At that rate it would take me 17.333 hours to get to work. I kept hoping the jam would clear. I had just too much stuff to get done and I really did not want to use a vacation day for such a frivolous reason. Skipping work because of a traffic jam? Bah!

It had all started in the morning. Chip banged on the bathroom door excitedly shouting, “Aie, look, burfa (snow).” I hurriedly came out. Chip was standing by the bedroom window in his pajamas, his nose pressed against the cold pane, a small cloud of condensed breath surrounded it. Tiny snowflakes leisurely floated in the air outside. Falling unhurriedly to the ground. The grass was already covered in a thin layer of silvery powder. I looked at the pretty scene. “Aie, aaj shala sutti? (Is the school closed today?)” Chip broke my spell. “No, Chip, you have school today. I have office today, Baba has office today.” “No Aie office, no Chip shalaa.” Chip declared and he ran off to find his Ajji. His Ajji had heard our conversation. With her on his side, Chip haggled with me and I knew despite my saying no again and again, Chip and his Ajji had secretly plotted to stay home and spend the day together.

“Where are you?” boomed a voice through my cell phone. It was BigGeek. He had just come home after his cardiac rehab. I told him. “It’s a giant mess.” He told me. He had been lucky on his way home from the rehab, he was coming the opposite way. “Well, it might just clear up. There is hardly any snow. Less than half an inch.” I was hoping against hope. There were three accidents before I even got on the highway. The highway was another story. When will people learn to drive in the snow? I muttered and cursed under my breath. “Aie, aie, aaj shala sutti (Is school close today?)” Chip was asking me again over the phone. “Yes, Chip, aaj sutti”. I finally told him. There was no way anybody was going to be able to drop at daycare today. It had taken me one hour to get to that exit – what would normally take 3-4 minutes.

Fifty minutes later, I had enough. I had moved another half mile or so. I called home. “I am coming home.” I announced. There was joyous cheer in the background. It took me another 10 minutes to get to an intersection where I finally made a roundabout and headed back home. In less than ten minutes, Chip was hugging me. “Aie aaj no office?” “No office today, Chip.” I smiled. “Mall choo-choo train baghaicha?” Chip had already made plans in his head to go to the mall to see the choo-choo train. “We’ll see.” I said, too tired to give an explanation why it was unlikely that we could make it to the mall. My mother made some hot mocha as I tried to convince BigGeek to stay home too. But he ended up going to work at about noon and felt even worse about skipping work.

But all said and done, I am glad I did. Chip was sleepy and he slept while eating his lunch. As I carried him upstairs, my mother followed with my lunch – a salad and a yogurt. With Chip nestled between us, my mom and I had the best vacation ever. As the snowstorm gained fury outside and the snow inches slowly mounted, we were snug under our down comforter watching fashion makeover shows on TLC. Finally, I too fell asleep and woke up two hours later refreshed and ready to take on the world.

21 comments:

noon said...

Oh man - sounds so nice. Unexpected breaks like this are the best!
Snow - miss it!
I love the cold weather these days - esp when I go to bed - when both kids are fast asleep and B is too and I go in and wrap myself in the soft comforter - it feels like heaven!
Only thing it feels that much harder to get up at 3.00 am when baby girl wakes up to nurse...just want to stay inside the comforter!

Preethi said...

best vacation indeed.. and live noon says.. the cozy indoors when its snowing outside sippiig a cup of hot chocolate... thats the best there is!!!
Did Chip get to make a snowman??? we have only had spurts of snow yet, and everytime the snow vanishes in a couple of days... Nantu it waiting for more snow to make snowman!!

Sukhaloka said...

Gotta love surprise holidays! Snow outside, toasty warmth inside - what could be better?

BTW, Chip's "Minglish" is a mixture of what and English exactly? Always meant to ask this question, but never quite got round to it. Is "Aie" and "Ajji" usually a way for a kid to address his parents, or does he just copy what you call each other? Am quite curious!

Anonymous said...

It is good to get such unexpected breaks sometimes. We get them during the rainy season here in Mumbai. btw it is nice to read a marathi mom blogger :)

Parul said...

Hey DM,

A nice, snuggly-wuggly post :)

By Deepa and Supriya said...

see and you thought snow was bad?? :)
now I want it to snow!!

rayshma said...

dropped in here from orchid's... nice blog :) mind if i drop by more often...?

Anitha(nikki's mom) said...

Happened to me one day, my mom was surprised when I knocked at the door after 1 hour of leaving(I hadn't called her). And it was a Friday, so it was like a long weekend.

Shobana said...

How nice! Best vacation I must say.

Sue said...

Sounds lovely. I've been missing my mother so much this last one week.

DDmom said...

That sounds like fun, unexpected vacations are the best! I lived 2 winters in the east coast, I used to love the fist few days of it, but driving to work and scrapping the car in the morning gets on after some time...
Best in that weather is snuggling inside the comforter and sipping chai. I could almost feel it reading the post :)

mnamma said...

Sounds like an awesome day spent with Chip and your Mom. Excellent!

Savani said...

noon: aren't they and don't worry at the rate kutti girl is growing up, she will sleep through the night before you know it!!

preethi: Chip doesn't really like to touch snow :) He takes after his father and mine. Do post about your snowman making!!

suki: we speak marathi at home. So Minglish = Marathi + English. He gets both the languages horrible mixed up. Aie=Mom, Ajji=Grandmom, Baba=Dad

tdm: YAY fellow marathi girl (err hope i am right).

Parul: yeah..wasn't thinking of the shovelling :)

orchid: hahahaha. no. its beautiful to look at but not to commute in.

rayshma: welcome and join the insane fun these girls have at my expense :)

Anitha: see.. now a long weekend is what I need.

Shobana: yeah and then came thursday :)

Sue: oh no!!! because when that happens no substitute will do. hope you are coping well, hon. take care.

ddmom: excatamundo. The first snow stops being pretty when you have to out shovel in hand.

Tharini said...

*sigh* Sounds divine. The only thing I shared in common with this post is the 2 hour nap. Took one this afternoon and woke up refreshed, and ready to take on the world! ;)

Mona said...

sounds so awesome. i wish i could take an unscheduled nap. two hours sounds totally heavenly.

Savani said...

tharini: yay! naps!

mona: i know I have those days too.. but when baby naps, you nap :) Chres will never end!

Cee Kay said...

Beautifully written!!

Used to be I LOVED snow days. That was when I wasn't working. Now as the first flake falls I begin thinking of driving in the snow, snow-day plans for my daughter, how it will affect my work day etc. :(

Savani said...

GTN: I hear you. I used to love snow days too and now these days its easy to fall into the traffic-jam-dealines-tobemet-what-of-Chip agenda!

Gauri said...

Oh - such surprise breaks are the best - the very best !!!!
What I would give to just snuggle in during the day and nap it up :-) We don't have snow though !!
And now look what you've done - I've been singing Frank Sinatra's "Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow" so often that my kids are actually threatening to walk out on me :-D

TypeWriterMom said...

i would love to know the secret of 2 hour naps ! lovely post !

Fuzzylogic said...

Such a warm cuddy post:)I hate driving in winter and here it's already snowing like crazy and with a prediction of worst winter in 15 yrs I have no hope to survive:( So Orchi or anyone who want snow I will pray the snow gods deliver you our share:)