Freezing Rain

Wednesday started out as every other day. I woke up – at “6:00am” which really means snooze once and hit the timer for 10 more minutes (I don’t know why I set the timer for 10 minutes when my snooze is 9 minutes… just a habit) – and checked my phone for the weather report. And I saw this – Freezing Rain, 100% of snow, and that weird icon that I learned means extreme temperature drop. Hooray, right?

I had no idea what Freezing Rain meant. I’ve gotten used to snow, below 20 degree weather – both previously unexperienced in my lovely California – and now I can say that I have also experienced Freezing Rain. (One of my east coast dance friends smiled condescendingly and said “Awww,” when I told her this was my first time…)

Freezing Rain sucks. I don’t even like rain, and it’s even worse when it feels like little bullets of ice. It’s in between rain and snow and when it collects on the ground it just becomes slush – not even the nice pretty mounds of white untouched snow that collect on cars and fields, but just wet icy puddles all over the ground.

What Freezing Rain Feels Like: Wet. Cold. Freezing. Rain. How many times can I repeat the words Freezing Rain in one blog post? I didn’t use an umbrella because.. well, mainly because I don’t like dealing with wet umbrellas after the fact.

What Freezing Rain Sounds Like: Typewriter staccato against windows – and even when it stops the chunks of ice that fall without warning from ledges hit the windows like ice bullets. My physical therapist actually got hit on the head by a falling chunk of ice and it broke her glasses. Made me not want to walk outside, like, ever.

What Freezing Rain Smells Like: Would not be able to tell you, due to nose being stuffy. The hypochondriac in me has been feeling phantom sore throats and stuffy noses since it seems like 75% of my class is sick…

What Freezing Rain Looks Like: Glass beads of water clinging delicately to branches no longer weighed down by heavy snow – it took my breath away. As much as I hate walking around in the rain, it was worth it to see the trees glittering with little droplets. There’s always a silver lining to every cloud, even in the middle of Freezing Rain.