Okay. So I have officially and currently discovered the worst part about living alone…ever.
Thunderstorms.
I may or may not be writing this from inside a sleeping bag on my bathroom floor while shrieking something that sounds kind of like “eeeeek” every time it lightnings (and then therefore thunders simultaneously…which is how I know that this storm means business). When you live alone and the power goes out and it’s storming like crazy, there is absolutely nothing to distract you from the mayhem outside. Plus my windows are versatile enough to allow a wonderful breeze in even while they are closed. So right now, it sounds like the storm is happening inside my apartment. Plus I live a block from the fire station so I hear all of the sirens loud and clear. And instead of comforting me and reminding me that help is just a few seconds down the street, those sirens just provide fuel to my irrational fear fire. In fact, it allows me to rationalize my irrational fear which makes it a lot scarier. I’m able to say, “See! People are having emergencies. I knew this storm was bad!”
And it doesn’t help either that this time last year a tornado hit pretty close to my house. Of course on tornado day I was blissfully ignorant of the danger. I had just had my first NASCAR experience, and I was still recovering from that. (I didn’t actually see a race though because of the bad weather…I just tailgated for about 5 hours and then came back to High Point and watched Taladega Nights with my friends who kept pausing the movie to go out in the weather and shot-gun a cold beer on the back porch. At the height of the storm, I was driving to a Thai restaurant and wondering why my entire family and all my friends kept calling and texting me. I found out later they were all watching the news and were calling to make sure that I wasn’t tied to my bathroom pipes all Helen Hunt style because the news was showing that the tornado was near my neighborhood. When I finally called my Dad in the morning, he was about to head over to make sure I wasn’t buried in the debris formerly known as my apartment. When I drove to work, there were police cars everywhere and parts of my town looked like a scene out of a movie; buildings and houses were completely destroyed, trees were down everywhere, buses and cars were turned over blown to the opposite side of the street.
I suddenly realized that I was an idiot and needed to start watching the news like a good adult.
So as I lie here on my cold bathroom floor asking myself over and over what exactly does a freight train sound like, I hope all you non-single, non-living alone, indoor pet owning people are enjoying and appreciating the fact that you have someone to commiserate with. You have someone to remind you that hey you're in a safe place and that the storm really isn't that bad. Thunder woke me up this morning at 2:45 and it sounded like waves were hitting my house so I turned the TV on to see on a scale of 1-10, how scared I needed to be. The TV was on long enough for me to see the words “Tornado Watch” and a picture of my county flashing red before the power went out. I used my cell phone as a flashlight (take your fancy computer phones and shove it…I don’t even need an app for that) to find candles. I couldn’t remember which was worse, a Tornado Warning or a Tornado Watch so I took my sleeping bag and some pillows into my tiny bathroom and hid from the scariest storm ever (not a fact). And this is where living alone is really lame. I had nothing and no one to distract me from the storm, or from the fact that I was in a sleeping bag in the middle of my bathroom, or from the reason why I was in a sleeping bag in the middle of my bathroom. I started texting my friends that live in Pacific and Central time zones because I didn’t want to text anyone local in case they were blissfully sleeping through a storm that I knew deep down would probably be okay. But because I was left to my own irrational, over-dramatic devices, and because I remember watching Twister, I decided that this storm was THE storm. It was headed directly towards my house in some fatalistic Stephen Crane kind of way. So while you snuggled up with your spouse, roommates, dogs, children, etc, I snuggled up with my iPod, laptop (which is currently down to 18 minutes without a battery…so I need to wrap this up soon), and my cellphone. Thank you my little technology family for your company and distraction. And thank you to my other time zone friends who texted me and kept me company during that terrible storm.
And now I will commence forgetting that the power is out and attempt to turn on the lights about thirty million times, failing to remember over and over that they don’t work.
And which one is worse? Tornado Warning or a Tornado Watch? Might be good to know.
Thunderstorms.
I may or may not be writing this from inside a sleeping bag on my bathroom floor while shrieking something that sounds kind of like “eeeeek” every time it lightnings (and then therefore thunders simultaneously…which is how I know that this storm means business). When you live alone and the power goes out and it’s storming like crazy, there is absolutely nothing to distract you from the mayhem outside. Plus my windows are versatile enough to allow a wonderful breeze in even while they are closed. So right now, it sounds like the storm is happening inside my apartment. Plus I live a block from the fire station so I hear all of the sirens loud and clear. And instead of comforting me and reminding me that help is just a few seconds down the street, those sirens just provide fuel to my irrational fear fire. In fact, it allows me to rationalize my irrational fear which makes it a lot scarier. I’m able to say, “See! People are having emergencies. I knew this storm was bad!”
And it doesn’t help either that this time last year a tornado hit pretty close to my house. Of course on tornado day I was blissfully ignorant of the danger. I had just had my first NASCAR experience, and I was still recovering from that. (I didn’t actually see a race though because of the bad weather…I just tailgated for about 5 hours and then came back to High Point and watched Taladega Nights with my friends who kept pausing the movie to go out in the weather and shot-gun a cold beer on the back porch. At the height of the storm, I was driving to a Thai restaurant and wondering why my entire family and all my friends kept calling and texting me. I found out later they were all watching the news and were calling to make sure that I wasn’t tied to my bathroom pipes all Helen Hunt style because the news was showing that the tornado was near my neighborhood. When I finally called my Dad in the morning, he was about to head over to make sure I wasn’t buried in the debris formerly known as my apartment. When I drove to work, there were police cars everywhere and parts of my town looked like a scene out of a movie; buildings and houses were completely destroyed, trees were down everywhere, buses and cars were turned over blown to the opposite side of the street.
I suddenly realized that I was an idiot and needed to start watching the news like a good adult.
So as I lie here on my cold bathroom floor asking myself over and over what exactly does a freight train sound like, I hope all you non-single, non-living alone, indoor pet owning people are enjoying and appreciating the fact that you have someone to commiserate with. You have someone to remind you that hey you're in a safe place and that the storm really isn't that bad. Thunder woke me up this morning at 2:45 and it sounded like waves were hitting my house so I turned the TV on to see on a scale of 1-10, how scared I needed to be. The TV was on long enough for me to see the words “Tornado Watch” and a picture of my county flashing red before the power went out. I used my cell phone as a flashlight (take your fancy computer phones and shove it…I don’t even need an app for that) to find candles. I couldn’t remember which was worse, a Tornado Warning or a Tornado Watch so I took my sleeping bag and some pillows into my tiny bathroom and hid from the scariest storm ever (not a fact). And this is where living alone is really lame. I had nothing and no one to distract me from the storm, or from the fact that I was in a sleeping bag in the middle of my bathroom, or from the reason why I was in a sleeping bag in the middle of my bathroom. I started texting my friends that live in Pacific and Central time zones because I didn’t want to text anyone local in case they were blissfully sleeping through a storm that I knew deep down would probably be okay. But because I was left to my own irrational, over-dramatic devices, and because I remember watching Twister, I decided that this storm was THE storm. It was headed directly towards my house in some fatalistic Stephen Crane kind of way. So while you snuggled up with your spouse, roommates, dogs, children, etc, I snuggled up with my iPod, laptop (which is currently down to 18 minutes without a battery…so I need to wrap this up soon), and my cellphone. Thank you my little technology family for your company and distraction. And thank you to my other time zone friends who texted me and kept me company during that terrible storm.
And now I will commence forgetting that the power is out and attempt to turn on the lights about thirty million times, failing to remember over and over that they don’t work.
And which one is worse? Tornado Warning or a Tornado Watch? Might be good to know.
A Tornado Warning is more serious than a Tornado Watch - and don't you forget it! :-)
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