When Razo visited me for 5 days last month, there was only one thing she wanted to see.
I know what you're all thinking, and it came as a complete shock to me too. It was not her biggest, most favorite sister in the entire world; but in fact it was snow that she had come to NY to see! She had dreamt of snow angles, snow men and snow ball fights for months leading up to her trip, and I had stupidly promised her that she would 100% see snow.
Life's a bitch sometimes, and of course, as chance would have it, the first bit of snow fell from the sky half an hour after her plane rolled along the runway flying out of JFK. I felt horrible. Especially knowing she would be spending the next two months in Texas, with next to no chance of seeing snow.
We both had one hope left. She was flying back to Australia via New York at the end of January, and our fingers and toes were crossed for some snow fall. She had never seen snow, and with a 3 hour stop over, I thought there would be ample time to enjoy a snow ball fight or three at the airport.
The night before she came back to New York, the city experienced its third blizzard for the month of January. Record breaking snow fall. I was so excited for Rachel to see snow! But at the same time, freaking out that the blizzard would stop all flights from entering New York at all.
The entire day was a mess! Her flight out of Texas was delayed by 3 hours, meaning that she would miss her connection to Sydney. I got hopeful that she would need to spend the night in the city by default. But no, at the last minute, her connection to Sydney got delayed by 3 hours also. Next disaster was the Air Train being down, and me arriving late to pick the poor unaccompanied minor up. In my frazzled state I somehow found her. We had to change terminals, and with the Air Train barely running, it took us nearly an hour to change to the next terminal. It was freak out central, and I was getting worried that she still may miss her flight!
As we exited the Air Train, and were sprinting to the terminal to check in, we came to an outdoor crossing. Rachel, with her arms full of bags, and her clarinet, threw everything to the ground, and dove head first into the mountains of snow at her feet. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. She was wearing paper thin leggings and trainers, and became was wet right through in a matter of seconds, but she didn't care one bit!
With time running out, I gathered her bags and told her to hustle. "I know it's snow, but you are about to miss your flight!"
As we approached the check-in counter, there was no one left in the line. "Are you both checking in?" "No just Rachel is, and she's an unaccompanied minor." "Ok, let me check her bags in, and then she doesn't need to be back here until twenty minutes before departure."
Rachel's eyes widened like a kid on Christmas morning. It was an hour and a half until departure, which meant a full hour of snow angels, snow men and snow ball fights!
In true Rachel style though, it turned into a full hour of snow ball fights smack bang in my face, and one VERY wet bottom!
