Tornado Warning

First, I wanted to let you all know that there is an AWESOME giveaway going on at The Flannel Flower. It's a FREE book, and it's about zombies. It doesn't get much better than that. There's even an exclusive interview with the author herself. I secretly hope to be giving away books on blogs and getting author interviews one day ;) So definitely, check it out! (Also, one of the entries is following my blog, so if you already do that, you've got one in the bag:))

On Wednesday, there was a tornado. Actually there were multiple tornados but only one actually touched down, and there was no damage or casualties. Thank goodness! Tornados are one of my worst fears, besides puking. I got a glimpse of the movie Twister as a kid and it scared the crap out of me! In third grade we read a book called Night of the Tornados or something like that, and it was crazy! The kid was involved in like seven! One detail I've always remembered from that book is the character describing how he heard the toilets making this gurgling sucking noise right before the tornados hit. My third grade teacher then confirmed that this does indeed usually happen before tornadoes because of the crazy pressure.

So, Wednesday. I got out of work at 12. I was waiting for my co-worker Nikki to get off at two so we could practice my hair/makeup for the wedding. It was a little stormy outside but nothing too bad. At 1:30 it started to rain like crazy. I started getting texts saying that maybe I should just head home. I felt bad though because it'd taken Nikki and I awhile to coordinate a time to do hair, and she lives all on her own and takes the train to work. I wouldn't want to be left alone in a storm to try and find my way to a train. So, I talked to Nikki and said maybe we shouldn't do hair, but I would take her home since it was nasty out. (I'd driven to work this day. I am SO thankful for that.)

Two came around and we headed out. As soon as we walked out the doors tornado sirens went off. Nikki had never heard one before and thought it was a fire truck. We both froze wondering what to do. Then our phones went off saying that our campus was on a tornado warning and to seek shelter. Nikki is a meteorology major and informed me that a tornado warning means a funnel cloud has been spotted. Visions of racing against the winds in my dad's truck danced in my head. Instead, we went back inside.  We looked for a safe place to go, and went inside the bathroom. I was on the phone with Sammy telling him what was going on. When we walked in though, I heard a weird gurgling sucking noise. There was another woman in there peeing, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her. I started to freak out just a bit, this was real!

We decided to go into the bookstore where all our friends were and there were adults who were being told what to do. Yeah, I'm technically a grown up but ha, I wanted the real grown ups to instruct me. They had us all on the bottom floor, waiting further instruction. Everyone around me was snap chatting and making their 'final videos.' I was getting texts from people freaking out, but I stayed calm. I literally thought, "I'm going to be Dauntless and stay calm. I may not be comfortable shooting a gun but I can stay calm right now."

See, everyone else is texting. That is my calm face.

Before we went into the store, we passed a window and Nikki showed me what could possibly be the tornado. There were clouds swirling like crazy over the building next door. It was crazy! Other people in the building were acting like nothing was happening. People were eating their lunch, going upstairs, asking us if they could get their parking validated. That really blew my mind. There is a funnel cloud in the area and you want your parking validated?! Goodness.

There was a moment where I thought I was going to die. I may or may not have made sure to tell my mom and Sammy that I loved them. It never hurts to say those things anyway, and I say it all the time, but I wanted to make sure I had my bases covered. 

In the end, everything was fine. The tornado didn't touch us and all was well. They let us go and I drove home in a hurry. I dropped Nikki off at the train station where she was promptly picked up by a train. On the drive home is when my calm started to fade and I started shaking. The shaking didn't stop for a few hours. 

This is a picture of the clouds at the Aurora campus of my school. At first I read the news wrong and thought this was what I saw outside but it wasn't. But. what I did see was pretty nasty so I totally believed this was it.

I'm so thankful everyone is alright and I'm here to tell the tale. The weather has been pretty crazy since then and I hope things can go back to normal soon. There were tornado warnings Thursday as well. Sammy's neighbors house was hit by lightning Wednesday night and is charred in places, but luckily it was raining so hard their house didn't catch on fire. There have been so many blessings the past few days and I'm so grateful!