It's one of those off and running days. Emily came into my room this morning and asked if I could just listen to her before saying no. She couldn't fall asleep last night, and could she sleep in for a half hour? I said OK, and decided to get ready for work so I could drop her off and head out to the coffee shop. I'm so behind on keeping up with reading blogs and posting them. I tried last night, but could only get an internet signal if I held my laptop at a specific angle. It's just too frustrating! So here I am, but I'm drinking decaf instead of the strong stuff I love because it's a work day. I just can't take a chance on the caffeine.

I went for the fan last night even though it's so loud. I just can't sleep without all the white noise. I woke at 1:00 and turned on the news to check for a weather update. It just showed strong thunderstorms, so I easily fell back to sleep. Brad said he was surprised to hear we have tornadoes in this part of the country. It is unusual and doesn't happen often. The city of La Plata was wiped out a few years ago, and College Park was hit pretty bad too. I had a close encounter years ago. Emily was a baby and her dad and I had met my father for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. While at the restaurant, a terrible storm hit. None of the diners were leaving because it was so wicked outside. Finally we decided to just go for it. My father got into his car and we got in ours, with me sitting in the back next to Emily. We had the radio on, and they announced tornadoes in our area. I was freaking scared. The announcer said if you were on the road and by a gully to leave your car and get into it. I told my ex we had to turn around and go to my parent's house. You could barely see a foot in front of the windshield. I was cowering in the back, my face burrowed into Emily's car seat, my ex not too happy with me. We got to the house and I took Emily into the bathtub with me while the men calmly watched the news on the TV. We left when the warning was over to find the road we had traveled was now strewn with humongous trees. Ever since then? Terrified of tornadoes. I'm so glad I live in a house with a basement. The storms of the night have cleared out and the sun is shining. It should reach 60 degrees again today. What a nice reprieve, especially with hearing how many of you still have snow. Our cold will come back, and there's every chance we'll see snow again, so I'm appreciating days like today.

Happy Wednesday!