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Arlington, VA
Miles Today: 0
Total Miles: 390
Days on the Road: 18

Snowbound nights: 3
People in apartment: 4
Dogs: 1
Fish: 1
Beers: 44
"Losers never come in first." - Liz
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Snowbound
N 38°50.471 W 77°05.747
Monday, Feb 17 2003 - Day 18

Misery. The Shining. Alive. Insomnia. A disturbingly high number of movies about someone going mad and hacking up another person are set in a remote place surrounded by snow. We've been captive in a one-bedroom apartment in Arlington, Virginia with two other people for three nights; tonight will be the fourth.

We've gone through a suitcase and a half of beer, eaten 7-11 takeout at least twice and watched nearly every movie in the apartment, including Pumping Iron starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. (It's surprisingly watchable and entertaining, especially the part where he says he wants to be remembered as someone who did great things, like a dictator or Jesus. It was almost as funny as when one of Joe Millionaire's idiot wannabe girlfriends claimed she wanted to be a mercenary and visit a third-world country like India to "bathe their children". Such misarticulated charity.)

Oh, and there's also a dog here. Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" comes to mind, but only briefly, as I'm thankful to say our desperation and cabin-fever has not sunk to such pitiful levels. There was a bout of group grouchiness yesterday and Cass had a nightmare that she and Liz had a brutal fight, otherwise it's been, well, a walk in a very snowy park. You see, it's lucky that we happen to be buried (not literally) in nearly two feet of snow with some of our official best friends. If we'd been stuck indoors for nearly 84 hours with anyone other than Cass and Dave, it might've ended up more like one of those movies mentioned earlier. Someone could've lost a limb.

We've made short trips to the local 7-11 (which is doubling as an emergency singles hangout), a Mexican restaurant and a nearby sledding hill. Sliding downhill in garbage bags wasn't as fun as it sounds, so we mostly just stood around feeling the wind chill on our faces and envying the one dude who had a snowboard. We also bonded with the neighbors over snow shovels and techniques for extricating our respective vehicles from their winter lockdown.

As far as I've heard, the media still hasn't titled this winter storm. I would propose Showdown Snowbound or Operation Snow Storm, but I'm really not a fan of how the media markets these events with fancy monikers in the first place. I null and void my proposal.

Looks like tomorrow we should be able to drive outta here, back to Owings Mills. If all goes well, we'll actually start our road trip before Spring. But that's a big if.


Fun with Mirrors and Dave
Still-Life: Bathroom Still-Life: Kitchen
more photos in the archives »

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yesterday tomorrow