Watchful Waiting

It is a term we use in medicine when all we intend to do is wait (usually for something bad to happen). We wait for our patient's bodies or their disease to force our hand. We watch for subtle signs that the tipping point has been reached. But we do nothing. 

That's how I felt today. The school wasn't ready to make a decision on weather related closings. My husband went to work and wouldn't be checking the weather at all until he left at 6 pm. The ice was supposed to blow in from the north around 3 pm. We were all watching our phones and emails for the latest weather news and waiting to know if it was coming as predicted and if we would close early in response. I took this photo looking out towards downtown from the staff break room on the upper floor of the school clinic (where OB/GYN is located) as I did some watchful waiting of my own. 

Places

On days like today with this weather situation looming, I would rather be anywhere else. I am not a person who relishes the cold nip of winter in the air. I am rather scared of driving on ice (and I hate the feeling of losing control). I don't appreciate the after effects of melting snow. 

So if I could be anywhere else right now, I would be on a beach. Enjoying the sun kissing my skin (despite the thick layer of 45 SPF sunscreen I'd have to wear), a gentle breeze blowing through my hair, and the cool Caribbean waters lapping around my ankles. I might be in a local eatery on the beach eating fresh caught fish and sipping on a margarita. Or I might have a mask and snorkel strapped to my face as I swam slowing and floated over a teaming mass of life in a coral reef. I could just as easily be laid out on a towel on the sand reading a book as playing in it with my husband (burying him in sand or building a sand castle). I don't have a specific beach in mind either. There are plenty I've loved in the past and many more that I hope to see in the future.