For Christmas this year, I accompanied my friend Heidi to her parent’s home in Sherwood Forest, Maryland. Yes, that’s right. The name of the community is Sherwood Forest, as in Maid Marian and Robin Hood (those are street names, too). We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woods and nature, with no cable news and only a dial-up connection. It was fine; I wasn’t expecting any profound, important e-mails and I really didn’t need to watch anything on tv besides Columbo (thank God they had it on dvd). Her parents made sure we had the necessities: lots of booze, food and a pretty Christmas tree. I mean hey, I got out of the city for a few days, I walked around in nature and I went to a supermarket where people actually say “Sorry,” if they bump into you. I was happy enough. Here’s what Christmas Eve looked like in Sherwood Forest:

On Sunday night, it was next to impossible to get back to NY, although there was hardly any snowfall in Maryland. This is what Sherwood Forest (I can’t stop saying it) looked like on Sunday afternoon:

My sister in NY kept texting me about the blizzard all day Sunday. I was only getting local news in MD, so I couldn’t really fathom the amount of snow the Northeast was getting. My mom called me and begged me to stay put. Heidi and I, however, had had all the fun we could in Sherwood Forest with only dial-up so we decided it was time to go. We took Greyhound on Monday afternoon at 2:10 pm. We didn’t get back to Brooklyn until 8:30pm, although the trip usually takes less than 4 hours. Thanks Snowmageddon. Now I know what all the fuss was about.


