Somehow the weather always seems to work against us. The Jan. 8 blizzard, Nemo, managed to position itself just a few steps behind the end of classes and a whopping two feet ahead of the weekend.
At 1:30 p.m., the entire Pleasantville campus switched to generator power anticipating an outage similar to the one that took place less than six months ago during Hurricane Sandy. Unfortunately this created a few problems.
When the generators turned on and power was restored several students realized they could no longer swipe into their buildings. This was okay when a Resident Assistant, or someone else, was by the door to let you in, but when no one was there you were stuck outside until either security let you in or if you were able to call anyone from the inside to let you in.
As day turned to evening the snow began to come down heavier. By early evening the grounds team that was putting down green salt to melt the snow had to stall operation and wait for the snow to stop falling. In its place a team of tractors started to plow the sidewalk to make them passible again.
While the Pace groundskeepers worked hard to clear the way, students tried to take advantage of the winter wonderland. Unfortunately, Pace is located smack in the middle of Westchester’s suburbia, leaving the student body with few options when it came to occupying itself.
“My friends and I tried attaching a rope to our jeep,” said junior media and communications major Sara Palmer. “But we couldn’t find a long enough one.”
The plan was to use the rope as an attachment for the car to pull them on skis.
“We ended up just going sledding at the houses,” said Palmer. “And then we watched some other people practice drifting.”
Drifting is a technique used by drivers in which over-steering causes loss of traction in the back wheels of the car. When there is snow on the ground it acts as a buffer so that the tires don’t wear down as quickly as they would without snow. Clearly, the snow prompted some students to engage in riskier behavior. Although it’s not the safest of activities, it’s definitely one of the most creative seeing as most students chose to catch up on their favorite television programs.
“I went to the gym, came home, watched some Pawn Stars and American Pickers,” said senior criminal justice major Mike Nasti. “And then I made waffles for breakfast.”
Since cold weather elicits eating, the snow-in posed as the perfect time to dabble in untouched fields, like the kitchen. Other students had ideas similar to those of Nasti’s.
“I made my bed really comfy and set up snacks and my computer so that everything was within reach,” said junior communications major Dana Merolesi. “The remote and phone were especially accessible.”
While, Nemo, not to be confused with Disney’s Pixar animation film about a clown fish, provided us with the perfect opportunity to hibernate, very few people used the snowy weekend to catch up on studies.
“I was going to do my homework, said Merolesi. “But I’ll do that tomorrow.”
So let’s close our eyes and click our heels three times in hopes of the next heaping pile of snow greeting us on a day that doesn’t matter nearly as much as a Friday or Saturday; Monday would be just fine.