By Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

It’s snowing today in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and practically everything is closed. As I write this sitting at my desk, I am looking out my window through a curtain of heavy wet snowflakes. I see the young family that lives across the street wearing puffy ski jackets and boots, out shoveling their driveway and sidewalk together. I see my daughter’s white car parked on the street with snow accumulating on its roof, hood, and windows, making it look like a white hump. And I see the tire marks left by vehicles that have sloshed their way up and down our unplowed, untreated street today.

This morning, I received a call from my doctor’s office to reschedule our appointment today for my annual exam. And though I wasn’t particularly dreading this appointment, how elated I was about this postponement. Why? You see, I wanted a snow day. How delicious it is to wear my slippers and to know that I do not have to leave to go anywhere today, that I am safe and secure and warm here in my home. Now mind you, I don’t have any desire to repeat the infamous blizzard of 1996 when I was snowed in with young children for days and days, when cabin fever started to set in. But for this one lovely day in early March, I am content just to be here, to see the children outside my window forming snowballs and chucking them at their father while he shovels the snow.