(Snow) Day

It began snowing heavily last night and continues to snow today while I write this post. According to the Weather Channel, the Saint Louis area is estimated to have gotten over seven inches of snow thus far. When I woke up this morning and walked out the door to go to work (having just encountered a few of my housemates who are teachers and happily just received the news of a snow day) I selfishly wished for one too. I would have liked to have the day off to spend watching movies, playing games, sleeping or whatever. But, more realistically and on a non-selfish level, I am glad that I do not have today off due to the weather. I was happy to see that my metrolink train was full this morning, and that other than a whitewashed sky, the day seemed pretty normal. This is a good thing because many of my companions on the morning commute would not want a snow day because they need to work and depend on all of the money in their paychecks.

On the train, I was drawn back to yesterday at work when I first found out it was supposed to snow a lot. My boss, the executive director, became all excited about the possibility of a snow day and what he would do with a day off of work. He was met promptly with a reply from the person working the front desk who said “YOU take a snow day…I’m coming to work. I need the hours and the money”. The front desk attendant is who I like to call the rockstar of our Y, and one of my favorite people to work with. He does everything in the building well, takes initiative during work and brings the whole place up. He works the front desk, works as a fitness attendant in the fitness area, and is also my sidekick with the kids and brings energy, charisma, instruction to working with the kids. He also serves as a check and brings level-headedness to the kid’s program by being frank with me about when my ideas for games with the kids are too hard for the younger ones or won’t work very well with a large amount of people, so then we brainstorm about how to adapt. He is in his late-twenties and has two kids, so I am glad that the Y is open on (snow)days for people like him so that he can provide for his family.

I often joke with my housemates that the Y is a place where the kids go on snow days, and on days like today I am grateful for this. You saw the stats and numbers of the youth in this area (See Ordinary Time II). The Y is a community center. It exist so that people have a place to gather, and to use as an outlet or escape as they workout or play basketball. It is good to have this place open so that the youth in the area have a place to go so that they can focus their energy and the freedom that they have today in positive ways. On a more personal level, the Y being open today provides me time to work on a grant to bolster our health, wellness, and mentoring program geared towards teen girls, so that the Y can continue to be a positive outlet for the youth of the Cahokia area.

It is reassuring to see that it appears to be a normal day in terms of social services in the city of Saint Louis. My housemate Ari is at work, which means that the St. Patrick Center (St Louis’s “one stop shop” for all unemployment services) is open to work with the homeless and unemployed. Gabby is at work too, which means that Saint Louis University’s homeless outreach program is running and in turn unemployed people are being assisted with their documents that they need and are receiving the help and guidance as they search for employment opportunities.

As far as I can tell, the only negative effect of the (snow) day today is that it caused me to miss my workout this morning. I have my commute timed so well that if I am running late for whatever reason it throws everything off. It took me two minutes longer to walk to the metro station in the snow, which in turn caused me to miss my train by one minute and have to catch the next one. This caused me to miss the bus that I normally take, and had to wait twenty minutes at the metro/bus station for the next one. Due to the snow, the busses took longer on their routes, and thus, instead of getting to the Y at 8AM for an hour workout before work starts I walked in the door at 9AM. This is a learning opportunity for me and I know that I need to take the snow into account tomorrow and simply need to leave my house a few minutes earlier to not repeat today. But in the grand scheme of things, if missing a workout today is my biggest issue with the snow compared with unemployed and homeless people seeking work and shelter, I would say that thankfully, it is a normal day.