No Mo

I don’t want to write about American Idol today. The show is boring me. It is wasting my time. So I will talk about…

The weather! Last night it was so rainy and crazy. The rain was falling hard, and I was driving, and I was wondering if there was going to be a tornado. I have never seen a tornado in person. I am thankful for that, but I am also curious. The traffic was horrible, and I knew it was because the rain was falling so fast and there would surely be flooding. Lo and behold, I came to a long line of traffic that lead to a viaduct. The road was filled with water, and people were slowly pushing through it. When it was my turn, I was terrified. I did not want to be one of those morons they show on the news, floating in water because they thought they could get through without a problem. Most of the people driving through the water were in SUVs and trucks, which made me worry even more: would my little Civic make it? The water was spread out much further than I thought, but I started pushing through. I didn’t know how much to accelerate because I still wanted control of the car, but I didn’t want to underaccelerate and get stuck. Twenty seconds later (um, I completely made up that estimate) I made it through! My car made a crazy noise, but it was OK. I heard on the news this morning that the very same viaduct now has eight to ten feet of water under it! How is that even possible?

The sun is out now, the birds are chirping, and I’m counting the seconds until Spring Break.

Weathering

It’s snowing. Again. It’s always snowing. Today’s snow is very pretty- all fat and falling in slow-motion, but it made my commute to work incredibly slow. I do love the snow, but I’m sick of it. It’s making things feel so hopeless. I think it would be different if I didn’t have to go to work, and I could just frolic in the snow, but driving adds a new poopy spin. At least the roads weren’t treacherous. I get myself so worked up when the snow is bad and driving is scary. I can’t sleep at all if I know I have to drive in the snow. Weather always has a very strong impact on me. Tornados and thunderstorms used to scare the crap out of me. I always went into the basement when I was little when there was just a tornado watch (not the actual warning). My dad, on the other hand, would sit with our front door open, videotaping. Today, in fact, is a school tornado drill. I am always freaked when we have drills. The worst is the “Intruder Drill,” because I always envision some horrible incident and me trying to save a bunch of children from a crazed maniac. The most annoying drills we have are fire drills. The kids don’t take the drills seriously, and neither do most of the adults. Everyone talks, and if it’s crappy out we have to stand outside in the crap. Kids are whining and throwing snowballs and jumping in mud. When I was little I really hated drills. I used to cry during fire drills because the buzz was so loud, and I hated the anticipation. I was so scared during tornado drills that I always put myself into the perfect tuck.

One of the members of my YALSA Audiobooks committee just moved to Alabama, and while she was out of town the terrible tornados came through. Her home was OK, but her dogs were in a kennel that got demolished. A day later, they found the dogs, who were a little hurt but doing fine. Thank goodness.

In non-weather news, it is Tuesday. Let the three-day Idol torture begin! Does anyone have any favorites yet?

Snow Day!!!!!!

I knew it was going to snow today, and I knew it was going to snow during the morning commute. Therefore, I did not sleep last night except for a few fitful dreams about snow. You see, my commute is between 45 minutes and an hour without snow. With snow, it would be at least two hours, not to mention the awful anxiety and stomach pains the drive would cause. The snow reports said the snow would start at midnight and snow through noon. High winds and accumulation were guaranteed. I could not drive in this. It would not be worth my health and safety.

I was up at 4:30 am waiting for the TV news to begin. For over an hour, I watched the school closing reports run along the bottom of the screen. At first, all of the schools listed were the Catholic schools. I checked my district's website and kept the phone close to my head, in case they made the fateful snow day call. Matt was sweet and watched the news with me. Thankfully, he had today off. he takes every other Friday off to do illustration work (and works longer hours on his other work days). Finally, at 5:50 am the phone rang. I was already screaming with joy at the sound, and then came the funny recorded message from our superintendent. It is one of the best feelings in the world. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy a snow day :)

Rainy Doodles

It's Labor Day. I have been a slack blog writer. Ah well. I have a very small audience who I don't think will mind the absence.

It's raining, and I have am now set up in our "dining room," in quotes because we have only dined in here once, and we had to move a table in to do it. Now I am at a card table in the middle of the room, my trusty Tobin at my side, trying to finish my second revision of my novel. It's not going to be so bad, but why is it so hard to sit down and do it? I'm already at page 121 out of 158, so that's nothing really. I do have an extra page/section thing I have to do, also. It's a character description list that I have to fit into the story so readers are less confused. At this point, I am working on the novel at such large intervals that even I am confused about who's who. That's because I changed most of the characters' names after the first round of revisions, as too many were the same or similar to the real-life people they were based on. So that's going to be a little work.

Speaking of work, I'm back (although the kids don't come back until Wednesday). That means the sleep problems are also back. Sigh. I can't wait to see the kids, though.

I would like to wish my Tobin a happy tenth birthday. I have had him for almost ten years!!! I love him so much. One blog I will tell the wacky story of how we got together. Yes, I am talking about my cat.