12 of 12 - January 2011

Can't believe it is already the 12th again. Time for the 12 of 12. Check out Chad Darnell's blog for the index and links to other 12 of 12er's around the globe.

We've been snowed/iced in here in Atlanta since Sunday, and I've spent the last few days trapped in the house, so today was my first full day back at work (I made it in for a half-day yesterday just because I was going stir-crazy stuck here at home but I was pretty much the only one there.) So it is a good thing that I was able to get out and back into civilization today, because otherwise my 12 of 12 would have just been self-portraits of me rocking back and forth in a corner muttering to myself with the accompanying commentary, "All work and no play makes Joni a dull girl," typed over and over ala Jack Torrence from The Shining.

8:25 a.m. - Heading out to work. I've got on 115 layers of clothing including thermals under my fat jeans. So glad that I hadn't thrown out the fat jeans yet, as they made layering a lot easier and also reminded me how far I've come with my weight loss (down 77 pounds since April). Of course, while I had on all the layers to keep me warm, I had absolutely no appropriate shoes for the snow. I know I have some boots somewhere, but wasn't able to find them. They will probably turn up in June when I'm looking for my flip-flops.

8:29 a.m. - Managed to get my short driveway shoveled off yesterday, so that made it a little easier this morning. My driveway, along with the community alleyway to the street, is on the north side of the house and stays shaded though most of the day, so it may be next month before the ice is all gone off the alley and my back deck which has about 8 inches of show, topped by 2 more inches of solid ice.

8:35 a.m. - A sad little one-eyed snowman at the end of my neighborhood. I can't tell if those red things on the front are deformed arms or really saggy and lopsided boobs.

8:40 a.m. - Accidental self-portrait I took on my way in from the parking lot.


1:14 p.m. - Our Director ordered pizza for the team today so we wouldn't have to go out in the ice to get our lunches. I know it is such a simple thing for her to do, but I seriously work for some of the nicest people.

1:15 p.m.- Should I have hot cocoa, or be good and go with the green tea? I went with the tea, but only because hot cocoa should be made with real milk, not water.

5:20 p.m. - On the way home. The parking lot is still iced over in a lot of places and plenty of snow still on the ground.

5:21 p.m. - Loved the look of the clouds over the parking lot and the airport in the distance.

5:23 p.m. - Oops, hit the wiper control as I started to pull out of my parking spot and it immediately froze. And of course, if I don't have the proper shoes for ice and snow, you can imagine that I don't have an ice scraper in my car either. (My Dad was so looking down on me, shaking his head and saying, "I've given you 100 of those things over the years - why was one of them not in your car young lady??") I ended up using the hard piece of plastic in the bottom of one of my reusable grocery bags to scrape it off - at least I'm industrious, if not prepared.)

5:30 p.m. - Liked the look of our fence widgets against the ice in this one.

5:32 p.m. - and the ominous nature of this one. My office is directly under the TA in Delta.

5:40 p.m. - Finally got some mail. That bit about "Through rain, sleet and gloom of night" on the side of the post office in New York is a big ole joke -the post office hasn't delivered any mail to my neighborhood all week. Although to be fair, I wasn't going out to the mailbox anyway. This also serves as my monthly bonus shot, which is the recreation of a photo from an earlier 12 of 12. I had a picking up the mail shot in my very first 12 of 12 back in December 2007.

5:47 p.m. - I've been craving cheese toast for 3 days, but I didn't have any cheese and the grocery store is too far to risk going with so much ice on the ground. Thankfully, my next-door neighbor Katie came to my rescue as she had cheese stocked in her fridge. I traipsed over in the snow to get it, shivering from the cold and shaking like an addict and she passed it off to me in a little plastic baggie. It had the feel of a drug deal going down.

And finally, one last bonus photo. This is not in fact my photo, nor was it taken on the 12th, but I thought it was kind of funny. My boss sent this to me today from when she went grocery shopping over the weekend before the snow hit. You see, in the south, for some strange reason, every time there are predictions of snow, everyone runs to the grocery store to buy milk and bread. It's like the whole world is coming to an end and the only thing that will save us all from certain doom is milk and bread. Why milk and bread? I have no idea. I guess bread in order to make sandwiches if the power goes out? But the milk would go bad if that happened. So I'm not sure why, but we do it. As evident by this photo of the Publix bread aisle on Sunday morning.

So there you have it, another 12 of 12 in the books. Now I'm off to enjoy my cheese toast and some hot chocolate made with milk, not water.

Hey, wait a minute. Now I think that I understand the whole bread and milk thing.