At first a snow day seems like a nice, cozy idea (Mind you I use the term snow day loosely, as I hate driving in snow and am easily trapped by bad weather). You settle down with a warm blanket, a cup of cocoa, and that book you’ve been meaning to read. You put together a list of things you’ll do while you’re tucked away from the outside world and its demands. You’ll organize the hall closet, write letters to people, clean your room, work on that craft project, watch that tv show you love, and bake bread. It will be great! Wonderful, even.

Then five minutes later you find your self lying upside down on the couch thinking “This is how it ends. Me. Alone. In my apartment surrounded by a frozen tundra.”

For some reason being snowed in really slows me down and puts me in a discouraging mood. Every time I try to do anything of value I feel so unmotivated and get overly focused on how I can’t leave. Out loud I’ll say “I should just make the best of it and do some dishes while I’m stuck inside.” but my subconscious will interject and say, “But first you should probably mentally prepare yourself by watching 12 hours of television shows that you don’t really care about.” Once I start to see the idiocy of this, I generally try to get myself out of this state by peeping out the window and acting shocked at how much snow has accumulated in the last five minutes. Then when I stop doing that I’ll look at my laptop, and go, oh, wait! Is that the internet? Those ombre cakes  and shabby chic furniture ideas aren’t going to pin themselves. Better get to it. After that there really is no hope. I mean really, those pages, literally don’t end.

Luckily there is a cure to prevent this:

Step one: Draw the shades. If you are like me you will get overly preoccupied with how much snow is building up. Just ignore all that nonsense and move on with your life.

Step two: Make dinner. Hanger is not going to help this situation. Note: A bag of chips does not count as dinner. Your mind will tell you it doesn’t matter all you’re doing is staying inside today, but those chips are in reality tiny little laziness anchors that will weigh you to the couch for eternity.

Step three:  Put on real clothes. Pajamas were not meant to be worn from 9-5. Besides now a days we have things like jeggings, which are just pajama pants society lets us wear in public, so it’s really not that hard to get dressed. Don’t hate; I say this with gratitude, some days are not meant for uncomfortable pants. Don’t try to deny it either. I mean we’ve all seen the pajama jeans ads. Someone is buying them! And if pajega jeans was a real thing we’d wear those too.

Step four: Pick one task you most feel like doing and start doing it. Even if you should be doing something else. One moment of creativity and accomplishment begets another.

Step five: Create a proper snowy day soundtrack and dance it out.*

*Author’s note: Dancing it out is usually an acceptable final step to any problem solving process.

Currently: Sad I didn’t get to go see Austenland at Sundance this year. However, I heard it’s been picked up, so I’ll just have to be patient and wait for it to come out.