The Story of the First Day of School

It was a Tuesday morning, class began at 9:30 and wasn't supposed to end until 7. Outside, piles of fresh snow had built up overnight and more was still coming down. While waiting for the bus stop, there were 25 people there (usually there's only 5 or 6) and we watch as one bus, reading "Overload" zooms past us. Another comes shortly thereafter and everyone crams on and we make it to campus just fine. By 11, freezing rain begins falling and it was fun for me because it was my first experience with it. It's like having tiny beads of glass get stuck in your hair and on your jacket. I bought a hot chocolate and waited for my next class..

Apparently freezing rain is incredibly dangerous to drive in because it freezes on the roads and on windshields as soon as it hits. Anyway, my second class ended early at 12 and I found out from other students in the class that UMass was closing at 12:30 for the rest of the day. Yes! Right? Actually, sort of no. After standing out in said freezing rain with my boots covered in snow for half an hour with only one bus driving by that fit maybe 5 of the 50 kids waiting, I realized that sending everyone on campus home at exactly the same time creates a huge traffic jam and leaves you stuck in the cold forever. Cal graciously came to pick me up, but it took him twenty minutes to de-ice and de-snow his car and dig around it so he could pull out. Meanwhile, my jacket was freezing (literally the rain had melted and refrozen on my jacket), and my toes were nowhere to be found.

After Cal picked me up (one hour waiting at the bus stop), it took another 50 minutes to get home. My apartment is literally a 5-10 minute drive from campus, to give you some perspective. I was still freezing, what with my cold wet clothes and missing feet and stuff but Cal found a good song on some jazz station and when we got back, we ordered pizza and ate a whole bunch of snacks.

The End.