Snowflakes and Their Frigid Relative: Ice

A few days ago, it snowed! I was so excited because I love snow and especially snowflakes. Every individual snowflake I’ve seen has been so delicate and beautiful that I constantly wonder about their creation. They all have minute and intricate details, and it disappoints me that they disappear so soon after I catch them. I wish that I could look at each one for more time, to give it the full admiration that it deserves. Sometimes, I’m lucky enough to capture one on my camera or phone, which is usually followed by a short self-celebration over my achievement.

Last year, around this time, it was snowing, but there was no bitter, piercing wind and it was reasonably sunny. Therefore, I decided to start shoveling the snow off of our driveway and afterwards, play in the snow with my cousins. I piled on layers of warm clothing, put on my boots, and grabbed the shovel to head outside. Quite a bit of snow had already fallen, enough to cover a third of my boots. I started shoveling, first a path to the front door and then our steep, uphill driveway. Immediately, I realized that on my driveway there was also a thin yet dangerous layer snow’s frigid and hostile relative, ice. Now, I had to be extra careful not to fall.

After a while of shoveling, I realized that large snowflakes were falling. I caught one on my hand and was able to catch a glimpse of its impressive design before it melted on my glove. I decided to take a break and look at more snowflakes. I noticed one that had landed on the window at the front of my house and that it hadn’t melted away yet due to the freezing temperature. This snowflake was magnificently detailed and big, big enough to be photographed with my phone. Realizing this, I dropped my shovel and walked up the driveway, towards the garage to grab my phone. When I reached my garage, I rapidly grabbed my phone and ran out towards the window with the snowflake on it. And that’s when everything went downhill, literally.

As you can imagine, because I didn’t have any grip on the ice, I slipped and fell on my behind, awkwardly sliding down the inclined, freshly shoveled driveway. I had also dropped my phone down the driveway during that chaos, but I finally came to a stop near my phone. It honestly didn’t hurt as much as it was embarrassing since my neighbors had seen me speed down my driveway on my back. They kindly asked if I was okay, and I assured that everything was fine. I got up and disappointed, hobbled up my driveway with my shovel and phone, into my house.

As I was explaining the incident to my family, I went over to the window with hopes that the snowflake was still there, and sure enough, it was there. :)

The Everything Bagel

Over the past few days, I’ve really been missing track season. I look forward to second semester, when track season begins because I really like my team, coaches, running, and of course I cannot forget the bagels.

It has now basically become a tradition for our girls track team to have bagels at every outdoor meet. I don’t know if it’s because of running or that bagels are just one of the best human-made creations, but we all love bagels. In fact, one of my favorite part of track meets is being able to sit back, relax, and eat my bagel once I am done running all of the events I was entered in.

A few years ago, I had finished running the 100 meter and 4 by 100 meter relay at a meet. After placing in both events, I was very content and decided to reward myself with a bagel, especially since I had completed all of my events for the meet. I jogged over the the Uni tent, under which was the box of bagels. I opened the box and picked out one of my favorites: the Everything Bagel. I then found a comfortable spot to sit/lean against the many track bags that covered the ground.

As I was enjoying my bagel and the beautiful weather, I saw three of my teammates sprinting towards the tent. “Hey,” they yelled. I looked happily looked up at them with a relatively large amount of bagel in my mouth. “We have to run the 4 by 200 meter relay!” The content disappeared from my face and instead looked bewildered, according to my friends. I thought that I got to run only two events that meet, yet I was mistaken. I sat there chewing furiously while my friends were quietly anticipating a response. I don’t remember for how long we were like this, but I do remember wishing that I hadn’t taken such a large bite. After some time of watching me chomp away awkwardly, I had managed to scarf down the bagel to respond to them with an “oh” and catch up to my teammates who were making their way towards the track.

We ended up running pretty well as a team, but I felt a little sick because of the bagel I think. After the race, they teased me about how funny I looked enjoying my bagel in the corner of the tent between track bags. However, I was very cozy and content. Anyways, I learned that I probably shouldn’t eat a bagel prior to sprinting and also shouldn’t take big bites of food. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember the two lessons… :)