It’s a TWISTER!
TORNADOES!
We had a bunch of tornadoes hit on Friday afternoon. I am one lucky, lucky duck.
First off, I went running during my (late - oops!) lunch break at my favorite park. It was bright and sunny out and we weren’t supposed to get thunderstorms until 6 pm. Great time to go running, right?
WRONG.
About halfway through my run it started to drizzle. And then there was lighting and thunder. Now 2.5 miles away from my car, I realize This. Is. Bad. If I get caught in a thunderstorm, I am surrounded by open fields on one side and a tree-lined path next to a stream on the other. Either direction, I’m toast. So I do the only thing I can do: pray I’ll make it okay and book it.
And I do. I run up this huge hill full speed and make it in my car just as the clouds open up.
So I think this is just awesome. I even came back to work and emailed my work buddies to say "hey, I just outran a thunderstorm! How lucky!"
15 minutes later, The Boy calls and tells me to get in the hallway because there’s a tornado at Rivergate; the mall 3 miles down the road.
Not so awesome.
I bunker down. I call work to tell them, um there’s a tornado and I don’t have Internet anymore. I call my brother, who is leaving for a study abroad trip to Italy at that exact time. I try so very, very hard not to freak him out:
Me: I hope you have a great time and make sure you watch your wallet…oh my God.
Trey: What?
Me: Nothing. Just the radio…about the tornado stuff…
Trey: What’s going on?
Me: Oh, they’re just saying it’s touched down in Mansker Farms…which is across the street…
Trey: ARE YOU OKAY?
Me: Uh huh…make sure you eat some gelato and…OH MY GOD I’M SO SCARED!
Funny thing is, the whole time I was freaking out about Matthew. He was at the school with the children and his cell phone doesn’t get reception unless he’s near a window there, and of course they had the children bunker down in the hallway. It’s funny because I was freaking out and calling every 30 seconds to see if I could get a hold of him and make sure he was okay, and he was in the basement of a cement-walled building, probably the safest place one could be. And here I was, across the street from an F-3 tornado in my little hallway with the drywall walls.
Other thoughts on my mind in the face of death: I’ve got to make sure my parents are okay, I’ve got to call Matthew’s parents and let them know when I last talked to them, oh my God, please don’t let anything happen to Matthew, and my boss is going to kill me if I can’t finish that work today.
(Yes, yes, yes, I know - got to work on my priorities. I’m working on it.)
(The Boy’s fine, by the way. Although now everytime we go anywhere he has to explain how the current pressure system is incapable of producing a tornado before I leave.)
Oh, and guess where the worst of the damage occurred? My cute little running park, all of 15 minutes after I was booking up that hill.
It sounds like I’m being melodramatic, and maybe I am. It is, after all, one of my fortes. But all I know is somebody up there is definitely, definitely looking out for me.
Now that is awesome.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Wow. Intense.
April 10th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Wow! Intense! Boy I gotta tell ya, I totally relate. I know that feeling. Back in ‘94 when we had the big earth quake in LA (i think it was a 6.6) I thought for sure I was a goner.
I remember it happened around 4:30AM. I was just getting home from a bitchin’ game of laser tag with some of my homies from the Palisades Rec Center. So I’m sitting on the side of the tub, peeling off my sweaty Reebok pumps and gym socks, when all of a sudden everything starts shaking and I get flung backwards into the tub, hitting my head on the soap tray as i fell.
So I’m laying there in my tub with my head thumping in pain, and I don’t know WHAT’s going on. Next thing I know, the shaking starts up again, and get this–out of my ShowerCaddy, shakes out my industrial size bottle of PertPlus and hit’s me square in the junk! I kid you not! i watched the whole thing unfold as if in slow-motion, but was powerless to do anything about it.
So I’m now writing in pain in my tub, wondering if I can ever create life again, and I’m trying to figure out what’s happening. Is my bathroom trying to kill me? Is this the Apocalypse? Is this shaking coming from my neighbors subwoofers? Or is it just an earthquake?
Fearing this was the end, my mind started to race. I wasn’t ready to die yet. I had so many questions still: Like, how many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man? Why Did I buy the industrial size bottle of shampoo? Did I leave my dome light on? What was that smell coming from the drain of my tub? I started to cry, why God why? I’m not ready! Please spare me oh merciful one! Take me away from this hell, I cannot live like this.
I then passed out from the pain. I awoke several hours later…a little sore, and a little embarrased about my overreaction, and realized it wasn’t the end of the world. But I did learn a little about the power of prayer–and not to use it lightly–because, in a strange way, I got what I asked for. I was awoken by my landlord with an eviction notice. So, I was taken away from that place, just like i asked. Weird huh? Anyways, you live and you learn, right. At least I keep my shampoo bottles on the ground now. Whew!