yes, i'm still alive

...but only barely...

after 2 weeks, 2100 miles, and WAY too many gas station restrooms - we made it to detroit!  only to almost die...

when we were looking for a houses in detroit awhile back someone had told us that they occasionally have tornadoes here, but it was really nothing to worry about and the last one was like 10 years ago.  i figured that my chances of being killed in drive-by-shooting were probably better than a tornado and it was something i didn't need to worry about.  well about a week after moving to detroit it started rain pretty bad.  i had heard that there were some tornadoes in the midwest but i don't live in the midwest - right?  

so off i head to walmart at 9 pm to buy some painting supplies.  it had been raining the previous day but when i left the house the skies seemed relatively clear and as i'm cruising around walmart (feeling pretty good about myself for being the least white-trashy person in the building) i hear it suddenly start to rain.  now you may be asking yourself how i could possibly hear it start to rain from inside the store - well that's just how hard it was raining!  and in fact, the rain was so loud that i couldn't even hear any announcements that were being made over the intercom.  

so in my head i'm thinking that i have 2 options - either leave now and get totally soaked or chill at walmart for a while and let the storm pass (because everyone who grows up in a desert knows that rain storms never last very long).  so i choose option 2 and figure i may now have lost my "least white-trashy" status since i was hanging out by myself at walmart on a saturday night but at least my hair will be dry.

well about an hour later the rain hasn't stopped yet and it is now 10:30 pm.  i'm also noticing that the store is kinda deserted and i decide that i'm just going to have to get wet no matter what and it's time for me to leave.  so i gather up all my bags and make a dash for the car.  now, i had a really good parking space since the parking lot was pretty much empty when i got there (probably because most people don't head off to walmart during a tornado) but by the time i reached my car it looked like i had taken a shower with my clothes on.  the rain had soaked through all my clothes to the skin and my hair was totally wet.  

i start driving home and was feeling pretty sorry for myself when i turn the radio on and immediately hear the "this is a test of the emergency broadcast station" beeping - except instead of being followed by the "this is only a test" it is followed by the announcement that a tornado has just touched down in the detroit metro area and the cities of ann arbor, ypsilanti, canton, etc. are officially on a tornado watch and everyone should be following standard emergency safety procedures.  so we have 2 problems here: i'm currently in canton and i have no idea what the standard safety procedures during a tornado are.  i figure i should probably just get home as soon as possible because then at least ben and i can die together.  

well it turns out the whole "getting home as possible" thing is a little easier said than done.  we live about 15 minutes from walmart but the rain was coming down so hard that the windshield wipers could barely keep up with rain which was being blown in 50 mile an hour gusts from every direction and shaking the car back and forth.  the lightning was striking so frequently that the sky was almost never dark - which helped out since i could now easily see the huge puddles in the streets.  i was driving about 25 miles and hour and was pretty much terrified but had finally made it to the home-stretch and was only about 3 minutes from home when the car in front of me slammed on their brakes and went gliding across the road as they were spraying huge walls of water taller than the car.  (come to find out later you should never drive down Cherry Hill Road when it rains because it always floods - consider yourself now warned).  so off i go through 12 inch deep water convinced that i'm going to get stuck and be one of those people you see on the news standing on top of their car that's buried under water - and i can just see the headline: "pregnant woman has craving at 11 pm and drives off into a tornado to get some ice cream..."

so i slow down to like 10 miles an hour and drive through this "puddle" that lasts for like mile and finally make it home.  i gather up all my grocery bags and figure out my strategic path to the house to get the least wet and as i'm running to the house i hear the tornado sirens blaring and thunder cracking.  i walk in the door and call to ben who comes upstairs and says something like, "wow, you're really wet."  

i'm pretty sure the look on my face must have said it all because then he asks if something was wrong and i'm like hello, dude can't you hear the sirens?  we're in the middle of a tornado here!!!  and he says, "oh yeah, i heard the warnings awhile ago but i've been down in the basement on my computer and didn't know anything was going on."

so there you have it - two very different versions of our first and probably only tornado.  

btw - i never did find out what the standard safety procedures during a tornado are, but i did learn one moral here that i'll pass on: if you're ever in a storm, it's probably not a good idea to "wait it out" at walmart...