the offWhites

Right now, there are two towels laid down on the floor of our shower, and Seth and I are both sitting here in said shower. We’ve both got our laptops, and we’re listening to some really obnoxious radio. It seems a little ridiculous, but then, that’s what you do when there are tornado warnings and sirens going off and you have no basement.

I’m not too worried yet. It’s tornado season in Kansas, and I’ve lived here all my life. Now, if it starts to sound like we’re inthe path of an oncoming train, Seth has informed me I’ll crouch as flat in the shower as I can, and he’ll cover me. When he told me this, I told him that was silly, since I at least have hair to protect my head. He insisted though, although he did agree to at least grab a towel and put it over his head. Cause, you know, he’s bald and all.

You know, seeking shelter during tornados is never as much fun as it really ought to be. When I was in second grade, there was a really big tornado that hit Topeka (well, I thought it was really big. A fairly thorough google search indicates it wasn’t big enough to merit any lasting coverage that made it online, unlike, say, the really big one that hit Topeka in 1966) during the school day. We all sat out in the hall for what seemed like for-ever, but was probably only a couple of hours. My teacher read to us most of the time, but the only problem was that most of the kids in my class were on on one side of the door, and a few of us were on the the other. Yeah. We couldn’t really hear the latest in the story of the Boxcar kids.

Then, when I was an RA in college, there was a pretty significant tornado that came through SE Kansas. Pittsburg wasn’t really affected, but tons of towns all around were. Well, I was an RA in the basement, so everyone and their sister were down in my hall. I had the tv in my room tuned to the weather channel and turned up as far as it would go so everyone could hear. It was clear, though, from watching the radar, that we were never really in any danger, so I sat in my room (ooo - big windows!) and worked on the sock I was knitting at the time.

Well. Now it’s 11:00, and the tornado warning has expired. There’s still a tornado watch on until 4:00am, but I think we can probably leave the relative safety of the shower and move to our bed. I sort of want to make a dirty joke here about moving to our bed, but my mom reads this, and that would just make me uncomfortable. So, just forget I said anything, okay? Thanks. It can be our little secret.