We had a snow day. Thank God. I was still stressed out today from worrying about my daughter, then worrying about our electricity being out, and then worrying for every other kids who was stuck in busses or at school well past when I had laid down for the night.

At the news conference held by the mayor and superintendent, the transportation director said that 300 kids had not gotten home at 10 p.m. They were in grades pre-K through 8. Pre-K. Those are 4 and 5 year olds. I still have the pit in my stomach when I think about it.

A friend got home and wasn’t able to get into her driveway all the way because of the snow. She doesn’t have a snowblower either. Neighbors drove by, stared at her, none of them helped until one person finally offered… for $50. I’m glad I live where I do – people were out helping each other all over the place, shoveling for the busses and cars stuck on roads, pushing cars up hills and cheering for them when they made it on their own. People in the suburbs might shun the city, but people here were helping all sorts of people they didn’t know. In the suburbs, it seems like everyone keeps to themselves unless they are friends and know each other. It’s a weird dynamic.

I was furious for my friend, so I told her I would come over and help build a giant middle finger out of snow for her neighbors to look at. I’m petty af. I told Anders about the plan to see if he wanted to help, thinking he would think it’s funny. Instead, he just looked at me with disappointment: “no, I don’t want to do that. I’ll go help her shovel if she needs help, but that doesn’t help anything. It doesn’t even make sense to be mad at them for being jerks, then do that because you’re just doing the same thing.” Annika was equally disappointed, having overheard my conversation: “NO I wanna build a snowman!”

Somehow I managed to raise two kids who are clearly more ethical and less petty than I am.

We didn’t build anything, because the snow wasn’t very sticky for some reason, but we did dig a tunnel under the snow bank. Annika built a blanket fort inside and hung out with her stuffed animals for much of the day. Anders played guitar for a while. I took them sledding and tubing until the tube popped dramatically as Anders was going down the hill. All in all it was a good day.