it's a hard knock life

I hate tornadoes. This is a funny statement seeing as how I’m currently living in Oklahoma in the midst of tornado season. I didn’t grow up around this part of the country and even though I’ve been here for several years I’ve just never gotten used to them.

Monday night we had tornadoes. I was actually handling things well. My eyes were glued to the TV as I watched a tornado hit an airport hanger in El Reno. The footage from the news chopper was amazing. But then it happened…the tornado sirens in my neighborhood starting sounding. I freaked out! If the tornado was close enough to my home for the sirens to go off then it was close enough for me to seriously think about taking cover. I tried to have a discussion with the roommates about the safest place in the house to be at a time like this. It’s probably the hallway. Although, my first thought was to go lay in the bathtub with a mattress over me. But my mattress is too big for the bathroom. Besides there’s not enough room in the bathtub for all three of us to fit with a mattress over us. I like my roommates but I have no desire to be in that close of quarters with them.

Having grown up in Oklahoma, my roommates are used to this type of weather and actually seem to enjoy it. Even more enjoyable for them was making fun of me for being scared. They offered no sympathy or support in my time of crisis. So I called Grandmother. She assured me that everything was okay but invited me over to her house anyway. It’s at times like this that it’s nice to have your grandparents living on the same street as you. I gathered my things and was out the door. I left my car in parked in the garage just in case it decided to hail and ran down the street as fast as I could. I spent the rest of the night sitting on Grandmothers couch with my knees pulled tightly to my chest. I could hear the rain and see the sky light up outside. I found myself counting the seconds between the lightning and thunder hoping the storm was on its way out of the city.

Whew...What a night! I don’t know how much more of this I can handle.