Girl Scout Night at the Mall of America

This Friday, Minnesota suffered from a snowstorm. It wasn't a bad snowstorm; I've driven in worse back home in the mountains. It was bad enough, apparently to warrant the closing of campus at noon, and for MNDOT to advise against all travel on highways in Nicollet, Sibley, Blue Earth, and Le Sueur Counties. Class being cancelled was the only bright spot in my day. I didn't have to ditch Spanish to drive up to the cities.

My best friend from home was scheduled to fly in Friday night. Her plane was to have taken off at 3, and landed at six. With all that damn snow, reduced visibility, and poor driving conditions, her plane was delayed until 5:30. And then until 11:30. Thankfully, they were able to board at 8 and take off at 9. That way, I didn't have to wait as long.

I left campus around 2:30, as I wasn't sure how long it would take me to drive the 80 miles to the cities in the "horrible weather." The roads weren't bad, I took it slow, I have illegal snow tires, and like I said, I've driven in worse. I got up to the cities by 4. Thinking I'd only have to kill an hour or so before heading out to the airport, I stopped by the Mall of America to find a coffee shop and maybe get some homework done.

I wound up spending close to 7 hours there.

I went to the Apple store, and looked at laptops. I went to Caribou Coffee, bought a hot chocolate, and tried to read my book. I stopped by the Yankee Candle Company, and bought a candle. I talked to my friend for at least 3 hours, as she was marooned in DIA and I was marooned in the MOA. I went to the official Mall of America Gift store and bought three model cars with the MOA logo on them, an official MOA candle for my sister, and a postcard for my boss. I ate at the food court. Since it was a Friday, and Lent isn't over yet, I bought Long John Silver's instead of Panda Express, and nearly got myself sick on the grease of it all, while coming down with a mild case of heartburn. By this time, I had walked through the amusement park section of the mall many many times and noticed the signs that said "Camp Snoopy will close at 9:30 for a private party." And so, to get from the East Neighborhood to the West Neighborhood (or maybe it was the south to the north. Or with my sense of direction, from the west to the south) I once again walked through Camp Snoopy, and began to notice the Girl Scouts. Starbucks being my next stop, I was quite depressed to find the comfy chairs occupied by a troop of Girl Scouts and their screaming mothers. But they left after I made snide remarks about loud and obnoxious people into my cell phone. So I and my Chantico settled into a comfy chair and read for a while.

Then Starbucks closed. It was 10:00 after all, and the rest of the mall was either closed for the night or packed with screaming brownies. (The bars in the mall were open until 2am, but bars are not where I like to go for a little bit of piece and quiet while reading.) I wandered around quite a bit more. I couldn't remember where I had left my car. But I finally left, and this ended my long incarceration in the American Gulag. Have I ever mentioned that I hate malls?

My friend's plane landed at midnight, we got back to the dorm at 1:30. The next night I drove her back for a 7:00 flight. She got to spend less than 24 hours here because of that DAMN Snowstorm!

According to the MSP website, they can handle a famous Minnesnowta storm expertly. If that be the case, why did they close the airport for a while last Friday?