Snow for Leap Year

"Love you!  Hope I don't die today."  Those were the words I yelled  upstairs as I left this morning.  I think the reply was something like "Yep." or "Right."  or "Me too." (Married almost two years now so the over-dramatic fails to bring out more of a response than this.)  But to my credit ... I've learned to turn down the dramatic too.  I wanted to yell out: "Love you!  Hope I don't die today. But if I do, please bury me in nice black pants and great shoes.  The stuff for the kids Sunday is in the basement. Make sure Stephanie gets it.  Remember, call Marsha first. And thank goodness it's Leap Year, so my death day will only come around every four years."  (Now you understand David's response?)    

David is off work today and I headed out my usual 10 minutes late for the office. Cell charged last night.  Heavy good coat in the trunk. Ear muffs in purse. I'm ready to go. Why the extra prep? We are expecting snow today, which means I have to drive home in the snow tonight. We haven't had much snow to speak of this winter and I'm not complaining.  But ever since I loop-de-looped down the on-ramp, I've been nervous about driving in bad weather.  So, yes, I'm the one who goes 15mph down the one way road causing a line of cars to stack up behind me.  I just turn my rear view mirror so I can't see and proceed.  Yes, I'm the girl who leaves 20 cars lengths in front of me on the highway because I'm scared to death to even touch my breaks. I'd rather just "slide to a stop".  Yes, I'm the girl who takes the almost 360 off-ramp at 2mph.  It's an ice-covered, downhill CURVE for goodness sake!  I make my New England-born drivers nuts, but I don't care. Even doing all of that, this Texasn still get nervous.

When I was younger living in Dallas on my own and I traveled, I would leave a stack of envelopes on the table.  "Goodbye/I Love You" letters to my relatives.  Odd? Sure. Crazy? Probably. Morbid? Definitely! But I just didn't want to die without everyone knowing how I felt about them.  I couldn't stand the idea of that.  Funny how big trips and snow storms bring that out of me, but sometimes I forget to let people know on a  daily, weekly or monthly basis how much I love and appreciate them. Any day could be anyone's last. It's just reality. We don't all get to live to 75 or 85 or 95 or 105! One of the things I love about this blog, is it has given me a chance to write out some of my feelings in a way I couldn't express them otherwse.  I hope you all know how I feel.  I hope I've been clear.  I hope you know how grateful I am to have the family I have, immediate, extended and "practically". 

Give those around you an extra hug today for Leap Year! Tell someone you love them or how proud you are of them. Take advantage of this extra day in 2012.