(no subject)

FYI for Chicagoland folks: tornado watch until 9 pm. My friend A just called to tell me about it. She's a trained storm spotter, and she says that so far today the weather is doing exactly as predicted for favorable tornado conditions to occur. The weather is going to shift around 6 pm tonight, so be ready for rain, wind, possible hail...

I'm glad that I already had plans with A for this evening; I hate tornadoes, so having someone with extensive knowledge of hazardous weather around will be better than sitting home alone, waiting for the sirens to go off. ;)

No more tornadoes, okay? Thanks.

Tonight marked the first time in the 2 and 2/3 years I've lived in this house that I've had to hide in the downstairs bathroom due to tornadoes. I DID NOT ENJOY IT. As I was driving home from work, I could see the super-dark clouds looming to the north. I was on the phone with fava_bean, who informed me that the news was showing a huge storm directly over DG, the town just north of me. Thankfully, the cloud shelf stopped right at the street I was on. To the north there was lightning and greenish sky and rain. To the south was sun. It was spooky. So I raced into the grocery store to nab what I needed for the evening and weekend and raced home. On the way, A called to say she was out in the street watching the clouds, and she didn't like the looks of things. Up in GE, a town a few miles north where her parents live, the sirens were on. A warned me that things were going to get bad, so she would come over when it was, in her estimation, safe.

As I pulled into the driveway I could hear sirens going off to the south, which FREAKED ME OUT. But then they stopped, so I grabbed the mail and groceries and scrambled inside. I was only inside for a few minutes when the rain started up here. I made a quick effort to grab my cat, who would NOT come out from under the bed. At that point I thought "Screw her, I'm not risking my hide for a stubborn cat!" I went back downstairs, grabbed a flashlight, my cell phone, and a few blankets and went into the bathroom just as the sirens started up. fava sent a text to say there was a tornado in my area, and I texted back to say I was in hiding. A few minutes later, the sirens stopped. But by this point I was so freaked out that I was sweating like a thief in church, so I had to change clothes. I guess that's my reaction to the threat of tornadoes: adrenaline to get through it, and then the sweats. Grosssss.

A little while after A came over and said the worst of it was done. We watched the lightning for a while, saw a rainbow, and then a crazy firey-orange sunset with lightning all around. Then we ate pizza, drank a bottle of champagne she wanted to split, and watched an old movie called The Watcher in the Woods. I remember it scaring the bejeezus out of me as a kid, but as an adult it's not very scary. If anything, I just found myself annoyed at how the lead actress only SHOUTED HER LINES instead of acting. But it was still fun to watch it, especially the alternate ending with aliens and stuff. Yes, really. Disney made a movie about a girl getting abducted by aliens during a seance, starring Bette Davis. Yes, REALLY. Good times.

Also, did anyone else see this in the latest message from LJ?
Frank would like to take a moment to commemorate the one-year passing of the King of Pop. Tell him your favorite Michael Jackson song or video, and he'll give you a glittering hand.
Would I still get the glittery glove if I told Franky my favorite Michael Jackson video is the one where he talked about how the police photographed his thighs, buttocks, and penis? That's the first thing I thought of, because I am warped.