40cakes | The Great Blizzard of February 10, 2008, 4:18 PM

I woke up this morning, and the sun was shining brightly. My roommate was planning on taking a walk around town. I put on a long-sleeved tee and a light jacket to go out to Menlo Park. While I was making breakfast, my parents called and during the chit-chat, said, "So is it snowing up by you yet?"
I said, "No, it's beautiful out! It's been 55 degrees all week!"

While we were eating at White Castle, I saw white flurries out in the parking lot. They weren't falling from the sky, but were blowing around in the wind. I couldn't tell if it was actually snowing, or if some dust or asbestos or similarly fatal chemical had blown over from the nearby construction site. The sun was still shining, anyway.

When we left Vintage Vinyl, it was ridiculously cold and windy. I threw my bag into the car and we decided to just go straight home, curl up and watch some DVDs and play video games. On the Garden State Parkway, I turned my headlights on because it had become so gray and windy, it felt like it would rain at any moment.

I started to see more and more cars with bits of snow on their bumpers and rooftops and wonder if there had been just enough snow for a light coating, and we had missed it since we had been hopping from store to store earlier. As we pulled off the Parkway and entered Bloomfield, however, the entire place looked like a winter wonderland. "We left town for two hours and it turned into a Christmas special!" I said.
"Yeah, it went from spring to winter!" Kirk added.

We went inside, buffering ourselves against the wind with our coats. I went to the bathroom, and Kirk followed me in a moment later to say, "Look out the window! It's really coming down now!" I pulled the curtain back and only saw solid grey. I assumed it was because someone had just taken a shower before we came home, so the window was fogged up. When I left the bathroom, I looked out the window again. The solid gray wasn't a mistake. There was actually some sort of instant blizzard going on outside.
The wind was buckling the trees and whistling through our windowpanes and frightening the cats. The snow was pouring down on our street. I was suddenly glad we hadn't stopped at Barnes & Noble to read books and get Starbucks.
In true internet geek fashion, I thought, "This'll make a great livejournal post!" I grabbed my camera to take a picture, then started the hot water pot so I could settle in with a cup of tea.

Kirk laughed and said, "Quickest storm EVER."
"Yeah! It really snuck up on us!"
"No, I mean it's already over."
I looked out the windows again, and just as quickly as it had begun, the storm had ended. There was still a bit of wind, but the sun was back to shining brightly, only now slightly reflected off of our instant snow. I hadn't even added honey to my tea yet.