Average Jane and the Huge Storm

Last night we had a big spring storm that caused all of the meteorologists to interrupt the good TV repeatedly throughout the evening to explain how and when the weather might kill us. I’m conditioned by a childhood in the boondocks to start grabbing big armloads of cats and heading down to the basement the second the tornado sirens go off. My husband is stubbornly convinced that tornadoes never hit “in the city” and is destined to someday be a storm-watching casualty statistic.

Unfortunately, the tornado sirens began as we were on our way out to get sandwiches for dinner. The employees at Subway were, as my mother would have said, as nervous as a pregnant fox in a forest fire. It seemed cruel to eat our food there when they clearly wanted to close the restaurant early, so we took it home, ate in front of the TV and watched the weather report.

By then, the first storm had finished threatening our area with tornadoes and hail, but it was raining hard and there was lots of exciting lightning and thunder. The second GIANT! SCARY! storm headed in around 10:00 p.m. and I did what any reasonable person would do: I went to bed. Aside from one last, incredibly noisy lightning strike near the house that briefly woke me up, I had a delightful, relaxing sleep. There’s something about a good thunderstorm that always makes me want to curl up with a blanket and pillow and sleep through the whole thing. This can be awkward at the office…