Today, while simultaneously baking a banana cake for my mom's birthday, looking for birthday candles (which I think I pitched when I moved to Maine, in a heroic effort at dejunking), reading up on docs and source code for my next project at work, wondering why the basement smells weird (is there a gas leak or does my house just smell?), and looking for a pair of old blue jeans to cut up for my dad's Christmas present, I paused. I looked outside at the beautiful snow covering my deck, my driveway, my street. Then, I turned on my Christmas lights in the kitchen. Woo! White Christmas? I will finish shoveling my driveway...tomorrow.

Yesterday evening I was feeling a little under the weather (flu is going around and my Monday afternoon student was sick), so I decided to go to bed early, around 8:45. Then, of course I couldn't sleep. Around 11:30, I lifted my head from the pillow to look out my attic window. There, moonlight cast the shadows of naked trees onto the ocean of snow and for just a moment I was sure that I was looking, not at shadows of branches, but at tree roots slithering across my yard.

I rolled out of bed, put on 2 fleeces and a sweater over my pajamas, managed to locate my wind pants, donned boots and scarf and hat and mittens and coat, and slipped out the front door into the yard to make snow angels in the quiet of the night.

Thus fortified, I returned to my nest where I dreamed vivid dreams.