Lack of Snow Melts Winter Fun

Here's my latest article for The Western Carolinian. It talks about how the lack of snow is affecting local businesses.

"Cullowhee's winter wonderland has been nonexistent this season due to unseasonably warm temperatures. While students may be bummed by the lack of cancelled classes as compared to the 2011 spring semester, local businesses also feel the heat of Mother Nature.
Ski resorts, like Sapphire Valley and Cataloochee, have experienced less business this season because few snow-loving sports fanatics want to ski or snowboard in 60 degree weather. Sapphire Valley, especially, has lost a substantial amount of business.

Steve Martel, director of amenities at Sapphire Valley Ski Resort, said revenue is less than half of what it was last year. This year, the facility has been open for only eight days.
"When you can't make snow, I guess the days of our ski hills being open are limited," he said. "You really can't compensate. It's like a golf tee time that got rained out… There's nothing you can do to change the weather."
While the majority if not all of the snow used at the resort is generated, the weather has been too warm to even create ice pellets that convert into snow for skiing. The pellets immediately melt.
"We never got to the point where we could cool down the ground," Martel said. "It's been too warm of a winter to do anything for skiing."
Cataloochee has experienced less of a hit, but Chris Bates, general manager, said that business is "ten percent off" compared to last year..."

Check out the rest of the story here!! 

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Off Campus Living: Parking

(As written for The Western Carolinian newspaper in my column "Off Campus Living 101")

After many nights of checking Catamount email for cancelled classes due to snow, spring is starting to return to Cullowhee. Hopefully, it will stay.

In the past week, temperatures rose and the sun emerged behind the thick mountain clouds to shine down on the Intramural Fields, Cullowhee Creek’s icy water, and the half of the UC lawn not surrounded by chain link fence. Honestly, I am more than grateful. It means I can stop worrying about one of the biggest concerns of my school day because I can bike in the warm breeze. I am referring to parking!

Parking is one of those diseases Western Carolina cannot get rid of. All the commuters complain that they can never find a space (at least not one that’s close to their classes). All the freshmen complain that their cars are too far away. The parking situation is literally a mess, and both commuters and residents suffer from odd, out-of-the-way parking spots and never enough spaces.

What’s the point in even having a car here if it is such a hassle? ...Have you looked around Cullowhee lately? You need a car to survive up here! Most people I know hate the walk from Reynolds to the dining hall. Now, imagine you did not have a car. Folks, it is a long walk from here to Wal-Mart. And, as an off campus student, I may not need a car to drive to school because my home is across the highway. But, I need groceries! Money orders for my rent! Without a car, I would have checked out months ago!

Commuters do have a few options to get them through the school day if parking is a problem. The Jackson County Community Transit bus rolls through the nearby off campus housing sites every school day, many times a day. Fare is free after flashing your Cat Card, and if you catch it right, the bus will get you to class on time. Another way is to make your friends wrestle with parking for you. Got a class together? Car pool and be free of parking duty thanks to your awesome pals!

On the other hand, Western Carolina makes parking more difficult than it has to be. When it snows, several parking spaces are eliminated for commuters because that is where the cleared off snow is dumped for the lot. Specifically, I am referring to the commuter lot next to Hunter Library. I have pulled into the lot to see over 20 spaces gone due to the lot was not cleared or cleared snow was dumped into the spaces. There have been complaints this school year that commuter lots have not been cleared at all even though classes are still in session. It is dangerous to drive on these crazy, curvy roads to get to class. If I am going to risk my life, I would at least like a snow-free parking space when I get there.

Speaking of dangerous, have you noticed strange, contradictory emails from the University? One was sent in February saying how there was black ice and snow on the ground, and travelers should take extreme caution. Directly under that, “changes to the university schedule have not been made.”

In December of last semester, a snow storm hit Cullowhee during the week of final exams. Classes were not cancelled, probably because it was exams, and commuters were forced to: a) drive and risk their lives in the snow and ice, b) take an incomplete on their exams and complete them in January, or c) reschedule their exams for another date before grades had to be submitted. I bundled up and walked through the snow and ice to take my exam. A 20-minute walk became ten minutes longer in the icy wind and slick sidewalks. Already suffering from mono, I risked my personal health to take an exam because the University was unaccommodating for their off campus students.

Why would Western do that? Is the off campus population that small? According to a representative at the Admissions Office, “about 50 percent” live in residence halls. However, the gap is even bigger when looking at Western Carolina’s website. On one page, Western posted the General Weather Policy that reads, “Since Western Carolina University is a residential university with more than 3,000 students in residence halls, the university does not… close its operations or cancel classes in Cullowhee because of bad weather.” It sounds like the majority of students live on campus and everyone else will have to suck it up. But then if you read the "About WCU" page, there is a different vibe. “A member of the University of North Carolina system, WCU now provides an education to more than 9,000 students…”

9,000 students! That means that there are 6,000 students who live off campus, take online courses, take classes at a different campus, or are studying abroad. Out of the four, two of these categories are affected by adverse weather and snow.

 While Western Carolina recommends that commuters stay home if road conditions are bad, I for one cannot afford to miss the majority of my classes either because of their content or because they only meet once a week. Every class is vital, and if Western Carolina does not cancel university activity during a bad winter storm, then Little Honda and I will just have to skid down the mountain to campus. Hopefully, there will be a parking space somewhere in all that snow!

(How's that for investigative journalism!!)

This Post was Supposed to be about Something Else

It snowed last night. I'm curled up at my computer desk listening to Morgan snore gently behind me. Now, we are both sick with what everyone calls "The Cullowhee Crud!!!" He is just coming out of it; I plunged into it last night. I have a raging fever, a wicked cough, sandpaper for a throat, and an unbelievable headache that occasionally cripples me. Getting to see beautiful falling snow last night was a blessing and for a moment, I could ignore the pain of my own body. However, by this morning, it was gone leaving only a few traces that it had been here at all.

Tomorrow is my one-month anniversary with Morgan. Sick as we are, we are both looking forward to it. He's finally going to cook for me!! I am beyond excited at this prospect, even if I don't like whatever he cooks. It was how I met Morgan.

He came over to the apartment one night to cook dinner for CC. In comes this guy with hair much shorter than I'm used to with my boys and their long "flowing locks" like River's black mane and Christian's shaggy mop, and this guy just strolls into our kitchen with all the purpose and comfort of someone who been living there a lot longer than CC and I actually had been. Immediately, Morgan is all business. He doesn't even introduce himself to me, sitting at the dining table wrapped around a text book, reading. Instead, he and CC pick up on conversation like they'd already been talking for hours; it's mostly about Morgan's work while I occasionally peek over my book with interest as Morgan begins unloading ingredients from his various bags and a cooler full of frozen shrimp. I don't remember exactly when we finally first spoke to each other or what was said. I know that when he was finished with dinner, I didn't like the taste of it and picked at it for half an hour before Morgan finally called me out on it. I think I said something along the lines of "I don't know you so I don't have to impress you." That still doesn't make any sense to me.

While I don't recall the details of how we first met, I remember that my interest was piqued about this boy. He came over, often teased me, and had this dry humor I was attracted to. It wasn't "love at first sight" or "I fell head over heels" the moment I met him. He's a senior graduating next month. I'm little sophomore who often proved how naive and silly I am. But when he badgered and badgered me about going to shoot with him and CC, I finally relented. As as we stood in the cold shooting guns at paper targets flapping in the shrill breeze, I began to feel something.

"HEY I THINK I LIKE MORGAN," I texted Chris... except that I nearly sent the text message to Morgan himself!!! That would have been interesting.

Chris was skeptical. He knew it'd be silly to get into a relationship with someone who was packing up and moving out a few mere months away. And he was right and I knew that. What if something did happen between Morgan and me? It was October. We'd have two months together before we were split apart, and I'd already seen the horrors of a long-distance relationship with Chris and his ex and my mother and her ex. It's nowhere near easy. Anyone who says otherwise was probably cheating on their faraway significant other.

Still, I am ultimately stubborn and decided to let what happened happen. For once, I wasn't going to make the first move. And for once... I DIDN'T! Morgan did! I should have known then that he'd be this special to me now.
It was the day I finished my book... a Tuesday. My friends had blown me off in celebrating and I told CC let's celebrate! Morgan and I texted each other randomly at the time, and I invited him over because I wanted a real celebration. He arrived at the apartment and was once again sick. So he plopped down on the loveseat beside me as I was sipping on my first horrible-tasting beer. CC, Morgan, and I bantered back and forth in a harmless manner, CC and I waiting for "Sons of Anarchy" to come on FX at 10.

"Ghost Rider" came on at 8, and suddenly CC had to go somewhere... class, I think it was... before returning just in time for "SoA." Suddenly, Morgan and I, inches apart from each other, were completely alone in the dark with only the glow of the TV before us. And we just started talking. It was all innocent fun, but I remember thinking how great he was.

It was he who began the tickle war once he found my greatest weakness.

It was he who gave me this look, stretched out his arm, and said, "Come 'ere," and I immediately curled up beside him.
It was he who ran his fingers through my hair.
It was me who was smiling all night long.
One month later I couldn't be happier. Chris thinks he's great. "He's the first non-douche bag you've dated since I've known you," Chris stated.
He drove six hours and crossed two state lines to pick me up from Kentucky when I got sick.
Coughing and still sick himself, he took care of me all last night, sleeping on the floor so I could have the twin bed to myself.
He took a split shift at work so he could be there for me when we went to Harris Regional for information on hypoglycemia management (that's what this post was actually supposed to be about! We're getting to that).
He loves me.
December can kiss my.................!