BAM snow. BAM ditch! What I learned today...

I believe they are calling this winter snow storm Hercules. Definitely an appropriate name; it came out of nowhere and kicked our city's ass.

I probably should keep up with the news; especially in the winter so I'm not surprised when I open my door in the morning. Yesterday there wasn't snow on the ground..  and I was thinking about raking up the last bit of leaves. And then BAM, snow up to my shins this morning.

I think this took everyone by surprised because the roads were not plowed or salted. And I think that thick, fluffy snow is the worse to drive in.... add my no tread tires and a cocky, Asian female driver and BAM! into a ditch we go.

Yo, i'm in a ditch

It took almost 4hrs for the tow truck guy to get to me. And there's a couple of things I learned sitting, freezing my butt off in my little car:

1. Don't be a cocky driver. You know you are going to be late any way, just drive 5 mi/hr if you have to. This is not Cali, Julia, hello.
2. Always make sure that you have at least a half tank of gas, if not full tank of gas in the winter months. I had less than a quarter of a tank, and after 4 hours my tank was at empty. I did make sure to turn off my car after I got it warmed up and then back on when I started to NOT feel my legs.
3. Wearing a dress and leggings are probably not the best attire when you are broken down during a blizzard. I'm glad that I remembered to bring my snowboarding jacket and I had an extra wool sweater in the car, but that was almost not enough.
4. Which brings me to this: have a emergency road side, I'm-stuck-in-my-car-in-16-degree (windchill of negative 16)-blizzard-storm. 
1. blanket
2. snacks
3. water
4. extra battery charger for phone
5. USB charger for phone
6. Bandaids... flares.. the usually emergency stuff.
7. Toilet paper. I REALLY had to pee. And if I had to wait another 4 hours, you best believe I would have popped a squat behind the pine trees..
5. About my phone. I have learned that making once 15sec video for Instagram drains about 10% of my phone's battery. Which was totally bad because I didn't have a USB charger in my car. One of the many (about 20 or so people stopped to offer some assistance) kind gentlemen that stopped asked me what I needed. Coffee, get warmed up in his car (that was a little creepy), a ride...I told him what I really needed was a USB charger. 20 minutes later he came back with one (apparently his wife's) and he gave it to me. BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME. I want to thank him. THANK YOU GUY IN THE RED TRUCK WITH COLTS STICKER.

After I got home--getting towed out of a snow bank is very scary and VERY exciting--I crawled into my bed and it took me about 2 hours to warm back up. And I don't know if it was the cold, the adrenaline from several near death (several people almost spun out where I did and could have landed on me) or from barely moving for 4 hours...but I vomited my guts out.

Thank God tomorrow is Friday. I will attempt to drive to work, but this time I'll give myself more time and drive a little more cautiously.

Oh, and I'm avoiding that street with huge ditch tomorrow.