I made a lot of plans for my days in Boston so that I could see as many friends as possible, but Mother Nature had other plans. It started out well enough. On Saturday morning, I went to see my friend Scooter (her real name is Mary Beth) and her family. I had a lot of fun playing with her kids and catching up with Scooter by telling stories about our lives using grapes, carrots, and celery to keep the kids entertained while we chatted.

That evening, my sister Vanessa had her engagement party. She made beautiful charcuterie boards and Logan, her fiancé, cooked up a feast. We had porchetta, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, and brussels sprouts. Vanessa made a tres leches for dessert. That night, I finally understood how parents feel when they see their kids happy and loved. It was very heartwarming to see Vanessa with her fiancé and her friends and to see how much they love her and all her quirks. It made me so happy.

On Sunday morning, I went to Mass with my friend Hijung and her family. Then we went to her house for lunch and games. I hadn’t seen her in 6 years and had never met 2 of her kids. Spending time with them was so fun! The two older kids were very excited to teach me how to play Sequence (the kids version) and Ruckus. They got very competitive!

After that, Mother Nature started messing with my plans. I was going to have dinner that night with my friend Morella. We decided to meet a little earlier than originally planned since a blizzard was going to start that night. We went to Petit Robert Bistro and had their unlimited steak frites. It was delicious!

Up until that point, I still had hope that the blizzard would end up being only a little bit of snow, but the next morning it was clear that I was wrong. It snowed all through Sunday night and all day on Monday. That meant that all my Monday plans were canceled. It wasn’t so bad though. I never got to enjoy snow days while I lived here because I could always work remotely. Now I’ve finally experienced a snow day where I had no other responsibilities! I read, had a lot of warm drinks, and Vanessa, Logan, and I (but mostly Logan) spent a few hours shoveling out our cars and playing in the snow.

Originally, I was going to head to Hamilton yesterday, but I decided to stay one more day in Boston so I could see my Runkeeper friends, who I was supposed to see on Monday. We went to a brewery and caught up. We talked about how special the people who worked at Runkeeper are. You don’t often work at a place where you make good friends, who you enjoy hanging out with even after you’ve left the company, and who support you in anything you need. I was very lucky to work there for 6 years.

Today, I drove to Hamilton and experienced winter driving complications. Either my windshield wiper fluid or the fluid lines froze, so the fluid wasn’t coming out. It was snowing when I left Boston and the combination of snow and salt from the road made my windshield very dirty. At times, it was hard to see and I couldn’t clean the windshield because the fluid wasn’t coming out. I kept waiting for enough snow to melt on my windshield so I’d have enough water on it for the wipers to clean the windshield. Every time I stopped for gas, I poured water on my windshield to clean it. Luckily, it stopped snowing pretty soon and the rest of the drive was fine. Now I’m safely in Hamilton for a few days and I’ll see my sister, more Runkeeper friends, and my godmother.