2006 Adventures in the Purple Crush

"So, I heard NY got some snow?" "What'd you guys do?" Well, here are a couple of our adventures....

After it finally stopped coming down yesterday evening, the official snow measurement came in at just under 27 inches in Central Park. That makes it THE biggest snowstorm in NYC's history, or as it's fondly now known, The Blizzard of '06 (which must be said in a booming voice with a bit of an echo in the back get the right effect). You would think someone could be a bit more creative in naming the storm. All hurricanes get real names, so you would think that THE biggest blizzard in history would get some kind of name. So, I've decided to refer to the Blizzard of '06 as the purple crush (for those of you that know me well or were at our wedding will understand my history between snow and the color purple, thanks dad).

Late last week I began to hear of the purple crush, and began to plan my weekend accordingly (yes, I AM an obsessive-compulsive planner). I scheduled Fresh Direct for Saturday morning, planned to finish off the rest of the grocery shopping at Fairway, changed our Saturday dinner plans to Saturday brunch plans, and turned the radiator on. I also planned to get our Sunday morning bagels on Saturday after brunch, but Jeff insisted that we make it an adventure Sunday morning and go out in the snow. The best laid plans...
Fresh Direct came an hour late, which made us late for the rescheduled brunch, and Fairway, ah Fairway, where do I begin? (Fairway is a grocery store here, actually, a really good grocery store that's just down the street from us, supposedly people come from all over the city. So, it's always busy, I promise an entry at a future date on the insanity which is shopping at Fairway.)

On this particular Saturday, before the purple crush, it was like walking into a slapstick comedy movie. I felt like people were running around, vegetables, fruit, elbows and bodies flying through the air. Checkout lines were wrapped (literally, I am NOT EVEN exaggerating, you can ask Jeff) around the store and OUT the door. People were walking down the aisles asking others if they were in line for checkout; it was impossible to tell if someone was actually shopping or checking out. Someone tried taking my stuff out of my cart and taking the cart, but I was able to successfully defend our cart. We made it out of the store, with everything we went in for, but we went home and had to take 2 hour naps to recover.

Saturday night I was like a kid before Christmas, "is it snowing yet?" "how much do you think we'll get?" I kept looking out the window. By midnight there was still barely a dusting on the ground. A little disappointed, we went to bed, I had visions of snowmen dancing in my head. But I wasn't disappointed when we woke up Sunday morning, and it was still coming down! Lola was even trying to attack the snowflakes through the window. When I opened my eyes the first thing I whispered out of my mouth was "the storm" (much like Doc whispered in "Back to the Future.") It had come in full force!

Purple Crush Adventure #1: H&H Bagels
We headed out for our bagels around 9 or so. I stepped out of our front door and right into thigh deep snow (to be fair, it was snow drift). The very first thing we felt was a calm that had come over the city. It was so quiet. No cars, no people, just snow. Bright white snow. And it was kind of snow that drapes the trees, picture perfect. It was literally the exact opposite of our experience at Fairway. All there was, was the sound of silence.

Walking to the bagel shop, it was impossible to see. Thank goodness we knew where we were going, street signs were covered, my glasses were less than useless, but we could wander down the middle of the street since there were no cars, and even if there were, they wouldn't be able to get through. Half way to H&H Jeff wondered out loud who's dumb idea was it to go out and get bagels. I gently (or perhaps, not so gently) reminded him it was his. But we knew that the reward of hot fresh bagels was going to be sweet (or in my case, savory), especially because we were certainly getting our workout as we blindly trudged through the knee deep snow. Really, the reward was that there no line on Sunday morning at H&H. After returning home after a successful bagel procurement trip, we decided that we were going to hit Central Park in the afternoon.

Purple Crush Adventure #2: Central Park
Puffy coat - check
Knee high snow boots - check
Camera - check
Ski pants - check

Ski pants? Are you kidding? Of course we were going to wear our ski pants, there was thigh deep snow out there (and yes, Jeff does have ski pants even though he doesn't ski)!

Central Park was fantastic, I believe that just about everyone in the city was in the park (probably why the streets were so quiet). But there was an atmosphere of camaraderie and smiles all around. Dogs were bounding around, completely covered in the white stuff, parents were pulling their kids on sleds through the streets and sidewalks of the park (which were really just snow paths). We stopped to take some pictures and a very nice lady insisted that she take our picture together and insisted that she crouch down in the snow to make sure she got us the perfect Christmas card picture (Purple Crush pictures will soon be available on my website).

We saw everything, it was after all, still New York. Umbrellas, snow boards, runners in shorts, people pulling luggage and women in high heels. Yes, high heels. Clearly, tourists. New Yorkers aren't that dumb.
We saw sleds of all shapes and sizes: cardboard boxes, traditional wood, plastic bins, and what we decided to use - our good ole' fannies. Not so slippery, but still does the job. Thank goodness for bib ski pants.

The funny thing to me was that everyone was taking pictures, not really pictures of people though (that's what we were taking pictures of). They were taking pictures of everything with snow on it. Look - that tree, with a bit of snow on one of the branches! Look, you can't see those buildings because it's snowing, take a picture of the building you can't see! Hey, there's ducks on that pond over there, let's go get a shot. And, the statue, covered in snow!
It's not like it doesn't ever snow here! I have yet to figure that one out.

Two hours later we trudged home. Our adventures thanks to the purple crush made us weary but very much content in the joy of the city we found in Central Park. And, when we got home, the only thing that could top off our afternoon was the perfect cup of hot chocolate. I'm sure by the end of today, much of the snow will resemble the color of our hot chocolate, but I'm also sure we won't forget our 2006 adventures in the purple crush.

Hot Chocolate
3 T Scharffen-Berger Sweetened Chocolate powder
2 T water
mug full of warm/steamed milk
marshmallows (optional)

Mix the water and chocolate together until a smooth paste. Add it to the warm milk and add the marshmallows and serve!