Tornados, drunk and naked roommates, and web cams - Quick update

He he he - that title makes my life sound so scandalous!

Busy, busy, busy...that's what I have been. On top of all the rush before finals (3 more weeks), I got knocked out of commission this week with a nasty sore throat and an earache. Who likes to use their sick days for when they are really sick?!

Well, here is a quick update on all that has been happening:

Around midnight on Sunday (November 6th), I turned off the TV to finish packing for a conference in Indy. We were leaving at 7am. There was a thunder storm warning but this really was no big deal. This area has some magnificent storms - sheets of rain, ear shattering thunder, and lightening that lights up the entire sky.

Around 2am, I looked out the window of my apartment door and saw that the storm had arrived. The rain was flowing down and I decided to step away from my window because the lightening was so close and frequent. When I first moved here, one of the students told me in order to truly experience Indiana, I needed to watch a high school basketball game, hit a deer, and get struck by lightening. I haven't done any of these and with just nine months left, I wasn't about to start with getting struck by lightening!

At 7am when I picked my colleagues up in the university van so we could head out to Indy, Brian asked if we had been watching the news. A tornado hit this area and wrecked havoc. Twenty-two people lost their lives. The majority of the damage happened about 20 miles from the school.

For those of us from earthquake land, being 20 miles from the epicenter is a big deal and means that you have a lot of damage but it does not work that way with tornados. USI was damage free.

We watched the news in Indy and saw the destruction.

At GLACUHO (the conference I was at), my roommate got drunk on Monday night and came stumbling in at 4am. She proceeded to undress and passed out in the bed in her bra and panties. Okay, this would be acceptable if you were my friend but I don't hardly even know this girl! Can you imagine the site I had to wake up to!

On this Tuesday the 15th , despite being sick as can be (some fool at GLACUHO gave me a nasty germ), I came to work because we were expecting to have three tornado warnings. Now a tornado watch means that the weather patterns would support a tornado but the likelihood of it occurring are not very high. A tornado warning means a tornado is going to happen and your area is in the potential path of where it might touch down.

The first warning hit around 9am. The wind was blowing, the sky looked nasty, and nothing happened. That level of fright that comes from thinking something bad might happen cannot be healthy. People were taking cover - fretting about their stuff (I put my purse and my computer in the bathroom because it is supposed to be the safest place in your house after a basement). After the warning was over, I decided that earthquakes were much better. The anticipation is too much and I had a lot of students that didn't take it seriously because they are used to tornado warnings. It's like the boy who called wolf.

When the second warning came through about 3pm, I was outside with my digital camera looking for that money shot. I decided that I was going to accept what I was told when I first moved here - the location of Evansville to the Ohio river has prevented the west side from ever being hit by a tornado. The north and east side have a history of being hit but never on the west side. I found that comforting when I first moved here and decided to ignore the panicked people and enjoy my first tornado experience.

The final tornado warning came around 5pm and I stayed in my office and tried to catch up on some work. The tornados did touch down in a couple places in the tri-state and did cause some damage but all was safe with USI. I did get in trouble from my supervisor from not role modeling positive behavior and taking cover like I wanted the students to do but her reprimand was pointless since she said she would have wanted to be out there too but wasn't smart enough to take a camera.

My friend got me a webcam for my birthday in August. It just sat in the box till last night. I hooked it up and today I was able to see my niece in Korea. She looks just like her dad did when he was a baby - chubby cheeks and no hair :)

Other than sleeping and studying, you are all caught up on my life. I am heading to Lacrosse, Wisconsin for a student leadership conference this weekend. Hopefully I will get to see some snow. It is about 23 degrees here but no snow.