Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers.

I had TWO encounters with snow this past week. Oddly enough, one was in Southern California...

On Saturday, Mom, Dad, and Camille picked me up so that I could catch Camille's big State Cup soccer game against another Surf team. Why two Surf teams had to drive four hours to Lancaster to play a one hour game against each other beats me. But it was a cool experience. We got to the Lancaster National Soccer facility around 7am to find the fields covered in snow! As a result, the games were delayed almost two hours in order to let the snow thaw but that didn't stop Camille and I from having a bit of fun.

Camille played great, as always, even though her team lost. I think they've come a loooong way this season and have potential to continue getting better and better. Here are a few action shots from the game.

My second encounter with snow came in Chicago, a more expected place to come across cold weather. I was in the Windy City for a last minute business trip from Monday through Thursday. It was a mad scramble to find a coat that would be warm enough and to figure out what on earth you wear when the weather is expected to go from 30 to 40 to 10 degrees all in the same week. Luckily, I wasn't outside too often.

I got into the office around 2pm on Monday and the weather was fine. It was sunny and about 35 degrees...I wasn't even cold! Tuesday's weather was fine as well. Then Wednesday came and the walk from the hotel to the office was not as pleasant as the others that week. It was windy, the air was moist, and probably about 20 degrees. The sun was not out and weather.com warned to expect the worst. My coworkers were laughing at me all week because I'd never been in weather that could potentially get down to the single digits. I've also never been outside when it was actually snowing and was very excited to experience such a thing. I made the mistake of saying that I've been "to" the snow...which apparently is not how it works in places that it actually snows. You don't go "to" the snow because you are already in the snow. In CA our only option is to travel to where the snow is. Explaining this to those who live in snowy weather was of no use.

Our office on the 33rd floor overlooks the lake and much of downtown Chicago. Around mid-day on Wednesday, you could not see the lake because there was snow everywhere! It was a beautiful site. I tried to take a picture but it just does not do the sight justice.

I decided to leave the office around 7 that night (before everyone else) so that I could walk around in the snow. I thought it would be cool to catch some snowflakes on my tongue and see some of the sights under a white blanket of ice and snow. I stopped for some deep dish pizza, which always hits the spot, and continued walking around. I had to use my umbrella because the snow was wet and melted the second it hit you, but since it was so windy my umbrella was constantly turning inside out. There were not many people walking around at this point so I'm sure I looked like a tourist of some sort. Needless to say, a new experience that started out as pretty fun turned out to be pretty miserable very quickly.

This is what it looked like when I got back to my hotel. When I woke up on Thursday morning, all the snow was gone and the sun was out. I figured it'd be another day like Monday or Tuesday...I don't think the intense weather changes in Chicago are all that surprising to anyone. Well, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was 10 degrees outside on Thursday morning! This is officially the coldest I've ever been!! It was 10 degrees, felt like 3 with windchill and all that jazz. The temperature only got up to about 15 that day. I was very under prepared for this type of weather. My coat didn't seem heavy enough, my scarf wasn't thick enough, and I had nothing covering my ears or face. I have never been happier to get on a plane back to Los Angeles!! I guess this type of weather is something that everyone should experience once in a while. I'm glad that I don't travel to these cold places very often. Chicago is a great city...when it's warm. Maybe our team will start planning trips to Los Angeles until it gets warmer in other parts of the country.