Snow Day

I've been in Syracuse University for about two years now. One and half if you really want to do the counting.

It's come to my attention that in all those two years, I have never taken the time to stop and simply take in a snow-fallen landscape.
So tonight, just about two hours ago, I did.
I stopped in front of my dorm on the way back from dinner and instead of ambling inside, muttering a hello while flashing my card to the RSA, and tottering upstairs to this computer...I just stood outside, and didn't go in.

Anyone who knows me well enough know that I love big cities. Los Angeles, New York City, the bigger, the taller, the more sketchy, the better.
The Walnut Hall area, as far as I can acquaint it, is as close to the big city feel as you can get.
Sure, Marshall Street and downtown has bigger buildings.
But its like when you're watching Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and the animation is so superb, so fine tuned, so detailed, that you can't but help notice the minute differences between the animation and what's real, and in the end, it'll all be better if you just scaled it back.

That's what its like in Syracuse. Downtown, Marshall Street, you see the big buildings and you get the feeling that you're in a big city, until you start noticing the little things that tell you that....well...you're not in a big city. Its too quiet, for one. And too clean.

But right outside my dorm door...it may not seem like a big city at first glance, but stick around during the evening, and there are little things....small things that remind me of the city.
One of these things is a single, lone street lamp right across the small street in front of the door.
When its on at night it flickers, on and off, continually. And I like it.

I've always known it was there.
But until tonight, I hadn't really taken the time to take it in. To notice it. To ...appreciate it.
And everything was covered in white.
Every day up to today since the beginning of December I've known that the white stuff was coming down from the stratosphere to puff up the Earth in a blanket of pure cold.
Never really took the time to stop and look at it though.

Its funny how so many of the beautiful things around you spend ages ignoring while they're frolicking right in front of your eyes waiting for you to pay attention.
All you have to do is not want to go home.