Whee, tornadoes!

I just finished looking at Weather.com, and apparently everything is clear at home. However, the same cannot be said for CoMo. Actually, I guess it can be now, even though grey clouds are still hovering above the pale sunny blue sky. Despite the innocuous appearance, there is still a tornado warning until 6:00. At least I'm out of the basement now. The sirens went off a while ago -- it feels like an hour, but it was probably more like half an hour -- and the P.A.s made everyone evacuate to the basement. If you've never spent a good half hour crammed in a tiny basement with probably a hundred other people, let me assure you that you're missing the experience of a lifetime -- and I've had that experience twice. Lucky me! It's a great opportunity to get to know your fellow hall residents intimately, ala sauna. Those washers and dryers in the basement? When combined with a ridiculous amount of people, they're fabulous sweat producers. And, really, who doesn't want to be dripping in sweat while in close quarters? If you can get distracted enough not to notice how hot you are, though, there is also an excellent chance to study. After all, there's nothing there to keep you from focusing on the book or two you grabbed while madly rushing out of your door. Except, of course, the people who are talking to each other, are on their cell phones, or are listening to music on their laptops. There's also the small detail of fighting for enough space to open your book without hitting someone. And unless you're extremely rude, forget about opening a laptop to type something. Not going to happen. There's also the joy of being cut off from the outside world temporarily (unless you're one of those people on your cell phone.). Occasionally you'll hear reports of what's happening, but you have no way of knowing if the person telling you what's going on is at all reliable. One minute you'll hear there's baseball-sized hail; the next you'll hear it's not even raining. Of course, in Missouri, both could be completely true. Who knows ... It's a great relief to finally be free again. I'm going to stand up now, because I'm sore from sitting on the concrete floor there for a long time. Here's hoping there are no more tornado warnings tonight.