A Winter Day

Dear Friends,

How should I break this to you? I think I’ll just be blunt and blurt it out.

Winter Wonderland does not exist. It’s an illusion.

Helsinki, very proud of its snow-how, was in complete chaos today: there was a blizzard. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise, since it’s mid-winter here. But public transport halted as trams slid off their rails and buses off the streets. Tram stops were filled with half of Helsinki, optimistically thinking that if a tram did arrive, they would all fit in.

Those with cars spent ages digging them out of snow, circling around stuck cars and snowy obstacles, and then shoveling snow to free up parking space on arrival.

Pedestrians were blinded in a white blur, slipping on the ice underneath their feet, while heavy chunks of snow fell menacingly from the tops of buildings all around them.

Downtown Helsinki earlier today

Staircases were a snowy slide. Wet socks and runny mascara were the fashion look of the day. Don’t even get me started on trying to push a pram with two babies out there in the snow.

People were late to work and appointments, and some were so shocked by this sudden chaos that they even talked to strangers. (I saw it with my own eyes.) Others were instagramming it.

I missed a doctor’s appointment because I found out the hard way that I had no chance of getting there since the trams weren’t moving. I was also thoughtless enough to have had my favorite suede handbag on me today. My handbag didn’t enjoy the snowfall any more than I did. It now looks like a cat that came in from the rain, sad and grumpy.

Over here in weather like this, you are still expected to go to work, school, and all your normal appointments, and preferably be on time, too. And we do all that just like it’s any other day, nothing out of the ordinary. Except that going from A to B takes up twice as much time as it normally would.

To top it off, tomorrow there’ll be a strike. I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere!

In all honesty, I can’t say I even think snow is that pretty. It’s just a layer of white, after all! (Why does saying that feel like I’m saying I hate puppies and cupcakes? I don’t, by the way.) It doesn’t change colors or do any magic tricks, like flowers in the summer or a sunset in the sky.

A snowy or frosty tree might look pretty, but wouldn’t that tree also look pretty in the summer, when it actually had some color?

Before the blizzard (last week)

I prefer my plants alive, but that’s just me

Winter trees

I don’t even know what this is

Typical winter weather, downtown, years ago

Then there’s the sweating-indoors-freezing-outdoors problem when wearing a warm winter coat. Electric hair reaching towards the roof. Empty wallet from shopping all of those expensive garments and accessories.

Children seemed to love it though: What is this new mountain here in the corner of the street? Have you ever slid down a heap of snow this big? Look how fast I can go – whoooo!

And when Hubby got home from work, he marveled at how pretty the lights next door looked in the snow.

But me, I’m thinking, Spring might arrive in May. A few more months to go. Waiting, waiting… My mantra.

Greener Syndrome. I think I have it, and I just made it up.

I do it all the time: think that the grass is greener elsewhere. Why wouldn’t it be? I’ve been elsewhere. I’ve seen elsewhere. Elsewhere has summer. And I’m a summer person. (A quick web search tells me this syndrome does in fact exist!)

In the meantime, maybe I’ll just stick to my strengths, which include:

• enjoy the endless pajama party at home with the babies
• sing songs for the twins (I only know about 2 ½ songs, and one of them is a Christmas song)
• continue with the fetch-baby-from-potentially-dangerous-place-and-snack-on-chocolate diet
• eat more chocolate

I think I’ll get through this winter. Blizzards and all.

(To tell you the truth, I am looking forward to when my babies can go out and play in the snow. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun! And maybe I’ll finally learn to enjoy winter. I’ll morph from a grouch into a winter person. Really, I will. I’ll try.)