You probably know that the South is currently experiencing a winter weather crisis. While North Carolina is not yet in a state of emergency, nonstop snow, sleet, hail, and freezing rain for the past 48 hours have essentially shut down my county since yesterday.

My Ohio friends have probably already gone to work and class in worse conditions this year, but understand that North Carolina is much less prepared to clear icy roads, since bad weather hardly comes through here. Technically, this snow day shouldn’t affect me, since I currently work from home, but it’s been a tad difficult to be productive, knowing that almost everyone else in the city has the day off… So let’s just say I’ve been taking plenty of breaks!

I started reading Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, which, I’ll admit, I was inspired to read after seeing last year’s film interpretation. The story, about a child caught in the middle of a terrible divorce between two dysfunctional parents, is both fascinating and heartbreaking. Other books I’ve recently read include: Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex (winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), Veronica Roth’s Divergent (since the movie version is coming out next month), and P.L. Travers’s Mary Poppins (very different from, but just as good as the Disney film).

Besides the Olympics coverage, I’ve been watching Friday Night Lights, which I only started, with low expectations, because some of my friends are obsessed, but has since proven to be a touching and sometimes thought-provoking show with some really great performances by the main characters. It’s not the best show I’ve ever seen, but, along with American Horror Story, it’s been filling my TV void that was left by last year’s ending of my favorite shows (30 Rock, The Office, Breaking Bad), and I’d recommend it (available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video).

Yesterday, I pulled off a hangnail (I can never help it!), and now the area is swollen and extremely sensitive. Fortunately, epsom salt is one of those amazing remedies that have endless uses. I’d never used it until I got runner’s toe (black toenails… Google it, if you dare!) from running the marathon. Basically, the entire area around my big toe was super swollen, my toenail was becoming ingrown, and it looked pretty bad and felt even worse. Before committing myself to whatever misery awaited me at the doctor’s, I decided to try epsom salt baths… Worked like a charm! After a week of regularly soaking my foot, the swelling went down, the pain disappeared, and if there’d been an infection before, it was gone. Epsom salt is a miracle cure for just about everything, and I’m sure it will restore my finger to its original condition soon.

This “Scared Straight: Liberal Arts Edition” video is the best Buzzfeed post I’ve seen in a while. It hit a little close to home, since I double-majored and double-minored in four “useless” studies, but the video is an exaggeration, and I found it to be hilarious.

My mom baked a delicious green tea cake, using matcha powder, and it tastes like a green tea Frappuccino from Starbucks. I’ve pretty much been eating it all day!

I recently came across cartoonist Gemma Correll’s website, and I can’t get enough! Her work is clever and funny, like that of The Oatmeal, Hyperbole and a Half, and The Perry Bible Fellowship. But her style and content, which I personally find more relatable, set her apart from other popular artists. Some of my favorites:

Societal reference? Check.

Classic literature reference? Check.

Pop culture reference? Check.
Reference to one of my all-time favorite movies? Check.

Hope everyone had a fantastic day, whether or not it was a snow day! And please keep those Southerners in dire situations in your thoughts and prayers.