Spring Ahead

This morning the sun is out with a vengeance, and that’s a blessing, because yesterday I spent the entire day confined to about 25 square feet of this house. The snow started Friday afternoon about 1 p.m., and it was clear that it was going to be a doozy. At the clothing store (it was time to put in a fresh stock of men’s “basics,” as they were called at J.C. Penney) I told the clerk, “I haven’t seen it coming down this fast all season.” When he agreed, I felt like a longtime Buffalonian.
I had about 225 invitations to hand-address for the spring benefit we’re doing in May for my brother’s organization. We’re having an auction/wine tasting/cocktail party/performance to raise money for an original production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This was an idea I had last fall, when my sister-in-law and my brother were talking about dream projects. I realized that there might also be an opportunity to do something more “grownup” than the pizza-and-pop potlucks we do at the end of the year or after the Nutcracker. Now, I’m a party planner from way back. I used to love to host dinners for 12, 16, 20, and I also used to plan parties that never came to fruition (ask me how I actually spent the Turn of the Millenium). But with the resources available to me here—time, energy, motivation both internal and external, and most importantly, help and support—I felt like it was possible to try, just try, to put something together. Not some fancy dress-ball fundraiser, but something reasonably scaled to the demographics served by my brother’s school.
With the snow coming down steadily through most of yesterday morning, I shut myself in my room and started in with the calligraphy pens. I didn’t try to do actual calligraphy, but pseudo-calligraphy. I managed to get through all of the envelopes by the end of the evening—reply envelopes, address list, and return addresses. It’s funny how you sometimes can get on a tear with something. I wanted to give up, but I also wanted to get through the whole kit and caboodle in order to drop them all in the mail first thing Monday. I turned on HGTV for company and got through all the envelopes and some good DIY tips as well (not to mention that HGTV has the best—and I mean the BEST—eye-candy on television.
I have short stories to evaluate today, but with the sun and blue sky and white, white snow, it seems silly to stay inside. But my blinds are up, the drapes drawn, and I suppose if I put my determination-cap on, I can get through those and maybe even get around to reading the book whose review is due tomorrow.