Hibernating beaver via MRB Prints @ Flickr.
A mere couple weeks after Snowpacalypse: The Enblizzarding, those of us in the Northeast US are getting Snowpacalypse: Part Deux (Now with More Sleet!). In NYC schools are closed, offices are empty and even the usually packed subway is nearly deserted.
Last night I sat in my living room with the lights out and watched the snow coming down outside. It looked like someone was shaking out a featherbed, and the wind was howling. I was perfectly happy to be curled up on the sofa, eating lasagna and ice cream, and watching the Olympics with a visiting not-boyfriend. The last Snowpacalypse found me skipping work to lie in bed, reading Game Change (awesome book!) and drinking endless cups of cocoa while the wind did its Wuthering Heights thing outside. Maybe I just like an excuse to be lazy, but I am a big fan of weather-induced hibernation. Other mammals do it…and maybe they’re onto something!
What’s your favorite form of hibernation? A day in your pajamas? Books? DVDs? Nomz? Catching up on sleep?
Scrabble and Chinese checkers with my husband and kids. Even tho I am a competitive person, it’s kinda awesome when my kids beat me up in scrabble.
My boyf and I do “bed day” where we stay in bed in PJs, watch movies, and eat frozen pizzas or microwave soup. It’s the best. When I’m home I prefer snuggling with a kitty under a blanket, sipping hot chocolate, reading a book, and listening to the purrs.
Lazy Day-at-home Activities
- Cooking, especially new things. I’m currently learning how to make the various types of pastry, with mixed results.
- Reading those novels which require a level of concentration impossible to achieve on public transport
- Not wearing a bra. (The correct term for this is ‘free boobing’, in case you’re wondering.)
Last winter we had our own snowpacolypse out here on the West Coast, and my sister came and spent the week with me in my cavernous empty house. (My approximately 9 housemates were all out of town.) We drank cocoa, made cookies, took naps, read books & watched Dolly Parton movies, and our big adventures involved walking to the grocery store. I kind of miss it.
I like making something with a long cooking time–like braising some big piece of meat or baking something that needs several rises–and watching horror movies all day. That’s basically a perfect day for me.
Jammies and thick socks, usually laying in bed reading or writing with cats mounded up all over me.
If the Boy is around, we will frequently snuggle, get frisky and then nap together.
Reading all of these things make me very much want to go home right now. Sadly, there is construction going on, so any lazy-day feeling would be immediately drowned out by the sound of sawing through concrete.
Usually catching up on the overloaded DVR because the BF and I watch too much tv. Whilst drinking cocoa or tea and enjoying NOMS.
@ImTheMarigold: I get a feeling of real accomplishment when I clear out the DVR. It’s a little sick.
I know, right? After each show is watched and deleted, I have to check the percentage of free space and get excited as it moves down. SICK.
Here in Snow Capital, USA, blizzards and other intense snow events are hardly ever excuses to skip work and stay in bed. Shit has to be real to for snow days, which usually includes loss of electricity. Gas stoves usually lead to cooking soup all day if there’s no electricity. Right now the weather is atrocious, but honestly if we canceled things every time it was this bad nothing would ever get done.
That said, I’m perfectly capable of declaring my own personal snow days, in part because being a student leads to a flexible schedule. Recently, my partner and I watched the whole series of Supernatural, and it was so delightful and fun that I now wish we had more eps to watch. Last night, after a frustrating day of miserable weather and driving my grandmother around to various doctors to make sure she wasn’t having a stroke (she wasn’t, thank dog), I read almost all of Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, after stupidly saying to myself, “Oh I’ll just check it out on google books” after someone recommended it here a few days ago, reading the first 130 pages, and then finally broke down and bought it for over 20$ (!!!) as an ebook when I got home last night. It was, indeed, super enjoyable though harrowing.
I’m also lucky enough to live in a very nice neighborhood, and managed to get a super cheap apartment in an old house surrounded by rich people. My desk is at the front of the house, in front of a bay window looking out over the street, made up of mostly 100+ year old houses. The house directly across from me is a really beautiful red brick house, with lots of peak-y roof…peaks, and cool brick design things, and two chimneys. Sitting and watching the snow fall, and collecting on the top of that house’s roof, is really relaxing and beautiful. I love pretty houses so much. I’ll be moving next year, and the thought of leaving my beloved city pains me. There can’t possibly be any place on earth as pretty in the snow as this place.
I like to wear my sportsbra for all 48 hours of the weekend when I’m not in the shower, get up early on Saturday, mani/pedi and errands, then back to bed for 8 solid hours of netflix, reading and snacks (I really love getting a ton of comfort food delivered from a diner and just nibbling on it all weekend). This weekend I’m doing I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore show
Hibernation and relaxation cease to exist when you have kids. Snow days mean several hours of hard labor, sledding, 5 times in and out of snowsuits, tears and frustration, finding the right mittens and gloves, shoveling, de-icing, making frantic runs to the store for eggs milk and bread with kids in tow, missed work…just insanity!
Special Mexican hot chocolate mix. Taking out a loaf of the special pumpkin bread I make and freeze for such emergencies. The special flannel t-shirt, knee high wool socks and soft shorts and whatever book I remember but not in detail.
Friends on TV for background noise, the sugar gliders out of their cages jumping on everything and making sugar glider noises. That’s my favorite day when it’s snowing.
Oh, Ocean_breeze, I envy your sugar gliders.
I haven’t been able to play with my hedgehog because I’ve had a head cold and those can be cross-species contagious.
@ GreekGirlsRule
Trust me it isn’t all honey and bugs for them either. One of them got stuck in my computer hard drive not too long ago (the disc flap broke off and it squeezed itself into the slot). That was a BAD day for both of us. Speaking of, maybe I should use the next snow storm down-time and tape the slot shut or better yet fix it.
Old battered copy of Lord of the Rings and a big bag of chips. I just start in anywhere.
@the lady,
Totally get that!! Now on my imaginary snow day WITHOUT my kids, I would not get dressed, maybe take a long shower and get back into cozy pajamas. Read a lot, sit in front of the fireplace with the kitties, read some more. Eat things like popcorn and cheese and crackers. Maybe have some long phone calls (uninterrupted) from the sofa!
A day of hibernation starts with comfy old yoga pants and sweatshirt, tea and/or hot cocoa, something carb-rich (bag of chips, or some rice or pasta), and a good book. Plus time to catch up on some blog reading. Perfection!
I just remembered something else after I posted.
The absolutely perfect place in the world (imho) to do a hibernation day: The Sylvia Beach Hotel on the Oregon Coast. All you book-lovers, take note. All the rooms are named and designed after an author (but in a classy way, not typical theme-room fare). On the top floor there’s a common reading room with a fireplace, a deck and lots of windows with an amazing view of the ocean just below and a lighthouse up the beach, and lots of overstuffed chairs and couches with reading lamps and throws at the ready. Plus cats! Plus lots of tea on hand, and mulled wine at night. Delicious meals are served family style at communal tables, so you meet all the (always interesting) other guests there.
If you’re ever in Oregon, I highly check it out. (and no, I’m not affiliated with this place at all, except as a happy repeat customer)
First of all, chag Purim sameach to all the Jewish posters here! My best wishes for a joyous holiday, no hangovers and lots of hamantaschen.
On a snow day, I like to go out and shovel the snow. Really, I do! I love the quiet and seeing everyone excited and happy with the weather. And it’s so beautiful!
Then I crawl in bed with kitties and a good book and read and nap. Aaaaah, lovely.
Snowy weekends are the best excuse for making homemade pizza–I make my own dough, and then we pile on the crazy toppings. I’m actually venturing out tomorrow to see my godmother tomorrow (at the the first place in NYC that I ever had a meal back when I was ten), but I think there will be lots of lounging around and some movies being played over this weekend. And speaking of movies–GoodFellas has been playing on Saturdays very often lately around these parts, and I CANNOT TURN AWAY FROM IT, unless it’s after the point where Henry Hill gets raided in 1980.
Working out will also be involved because I work out at home, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment (along with making awesome dough, of course).
Getting high, baking, and tucking into an entire television series. Last snow day was banana cake with cream cheese icing and Prison Break.
OMG viajera! That hotel looks AMAZING and it’s only 5 hrs south from me
I’ve never heard of it before.
FYI, in Madison, WI is the most awesome little B & B called The Canterbury Inn… each room is from one of the Canterbury Tales. It’s above a bookstore / coffeeshop, and the whoe caboodle is in a restored historic building
Cimorene! Supernatural is the best! I’m excited you’re a fan.
Unfortunately for me a day of hibernation usually means checking up on all the email I’ve been ignoring that week. Ideally, it would involve a marathon of cheesy reality tv — Project Runway or Top Chef, depending on what’s “in season.”
Here in the South, hibernation days usually come around because of BIG thunderstorms rather than snow. The power most often goes out, so TV is out of the question. I love curling up to read with a booklight, the periodically falling asleep, waking back up to read, falling asleep again… you get the idea.
Always, of course, with sleeping cats and open windows so we can stare at the lightning.
Weekends where I stay holed up all weekend in my pajamas watching movies, taking naps and getting stuff done are my favorite. I get a little worried that I am going to be one of those crabby old hermit ladies, I so love my lazy weekends.