Weather

Hurricane Sandy happened. And then we got what is called a "Nor'easter" (Nahr-Eashaahh). Everything has a name over here. They are even naming the snowstorms now...I think what happened the other night was called Brutus. Et tu, Brute? I don't remember any rain storm ever having a name in Seattle, but that's probably because there aren't enough names for all that rain. Here is what my street looked like during the snow storm...

The fact is, the weather has been crazy over here. Lucky for us in Boston, Sandy took a sharp left turn at Atlantic City, leaving us relatively unharmed. It was windy, it was rainy, we got a day off school, but in the end we got very lucky. There is no doubt that everyone has seen and heard the horrible stories from New York City. The sea level was rising at about an inch per decade between 1900-2000, now it's rising at about 6 inches per decade. I am glad my grandparents had a pool when I was a kid, because we are all going to need to know how to swim in about 30 years.

Today it was nearly 70 degrees. So just to recap, in the past two weeks we had a hurricane, a nor'easter and what would have qualified as a decent summer day in Seattle. It's funny to live in a place where snow is no big deal. Brutus was the first snow of the year, and people here treated it like it was just another day. No one drives any differently, people don't immediately start freaking out...they just put on gloves and hats and keep on trucking. I made the foolish mistake of asking if we might get school off the next day, and my friends just laughed.

I am having similar run ins to my "Welcome to Boston" moments, when I complain about the cold. The majority of the folks who I hang out with from school are from very cold places. In fact, now that I think of it, aside from my one buddy from California all of my friends are from cold places. Some are from Boston and New York, a few are from Michigan, one is even from Russia. You don't get a lot of sympathy from someone who grew up in Moscow when you whine about a 35 degree day. But I'm a wimp, and I am not ashamed to admit that. I hear the exact same thing every time I mention how cold it is...."Just wait," they say. Or "This is nothing".

I suppose we are all proud of the characteristics of our home regions. Everyone I meet out here asks me if the rain in Seattle is really as bad as people say, and I proudly tell them that it's worse. Tell someone from Texas that you are hot, and they will tell you to visit Houston in August. Tell someone from Florida that it's muggy, and they will laugh at you. Well in Boston, it's the cold. And they are very proud of how tough they are. They wear their ability to deal with the cold like a badge of honor. I was talking to woman earlier this fall who has lived in Brookline, Mass for her entire life. She was talking about the major differences between Boston and New York, and someone asked her about the differences in fashion. She paused for a moment, and then sort of laughed. "In New York, they really care what they look like," she said. "In Boston, we bundle up and to heck with you."

She nailed it. Our professors here at BU tell us to "crystallize the lead", which means to tell the reader or listener the major piece of information in the first sentence of the story. This lady from Brookline crystallized the lead on Boston in one perfect sentence. So anyway, who's excited for this winter? Not me. Get ready for a bunch of whiny blogs from a freezing Seattle wimp.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.