The Struggles of a California Girl in the Boston Winter

Yesterday I had to go to a doctor's appointment. I left my apartment 10 minutes early to scrape snow off my car in light of the recent storm. Hadn't surveyed the damage yet. Found this waiting for me:

This picture doesn't really do it justice. That was at least two feet of snow forming a wall around my car. Plus covering the top. As a result, I had to take a cab to my doctor's appointment. Massachusetts: 1. California: 0.

After the doctor, I walked to Target. I decided I was supposed to buy a shovel if I wanted to drive anywhere. Either that or wait until spring. It was a very cold walk. Only to discover that Target doesn't sell shovels. Massachusetts: 2. California: 0.

Walked to Home Depot. I did not pretend to be an independent woman this time. (Desperate times call for desperate measures.) One of the boys working there directed me to the shovels. I swear to you that I thought a shovel looked like this:

Well, evidently it does not. Attention Californians. A snow shovel looks more like this:

At first it took me awhile to adjust to this newfound image of a shovel.  I thought it was a fancy dust pan with a handle. Guess not. Massachusetts: 3. California: 0. The home depot man assured me that it was a shovel. So I purchased it, and walked to a bus stop, where I caught a ride home with my new shovel.

Once home, my shovel and I went to work. For at least an hour, maybe closer to two.  During which time I decided there needs to be a class for Californians on how to shovel your car out of the snow.  How would I know? (Note to self: wear gloves next time.)  Apparently everybody else in Massachusetts was out shoveling snow five minutes after the storm ended.  Most of the other cars in the parking lot had already been unburied.  Clearly I did not get the memo.

I nearly gave up about four times and decided to come back later. (Yeah right.) But something inspired me to finish.  Maybe it was the loss of all feeling in my hands, and thus the inability to feel the onset of frostbite? Well it worked. After all that effort, I finally freed my car from its snowy prison. We did a few victory laps around the parking lot to celebrate.  Probably one of my proudest moments ever. Massachusetts: 3. California... win.