1. Getting caught in a large earthquake.
2. Asking a woman when her baby is due, only to find out she is NOT pregnant. (maybe not exactly life threatening, but definitely life humiliating)
3. Getting trapped in the middle of a "Katrina" like hurricane.
4. Diving into very deep water with great white sharks.
5. Getting stranded at a mall:
A. while the roof gets smashed in by a tree branch
B. in a foreign state
C. with a two month old baby
D. not knowing where and if my husband is safe
All while a tornado touches down a mere 5 to 10 miles away.
OH WAIT. I did experience that!! Take if from me...not cool.
You see, we live in Grapevine, Texas. Grapevine is bordered by Flower Mound and
Lewisville (for all the Cache Valley folk, think Logan, North Logan, and Hyde Park. Grapevine is the North Logan). Yesterday, both of those cities had tornado sitings.
It all started when my friend Traci, her 18 month old son Sawyer,
Navi, and myself walked into a
Payless Shoes store in the mall. Suddenly the metal roof above us sounded as if a high school was being dismissed on the last day of school. Huge thuds and bangs were followed by almost a groaning metal sound. I had no idea there was even a thunderstorm going on because when we arrived at the mall an hour or so prior, it was just hot and overcast. Therefore, I just kind of looked at Traci and laughed, thinking to myself..."there must be a lot of workers up on the roof fixing something." Oh how I wished it were workers...
The next thing we knew all the stores around
Payless were shutting off their lights and pulling down the gates on their store fronts. Then, as the power flickered, one of the
Payless employees told us the loud crash was in fact a large tree branch that had been thrown into the roof by a tornado touching down just miles away. We later would see the aftermath - broken ceiling tiles, leaves and sticks everywhere, and very large puddles of water collecting in the walkway of the mall.
We frantically called our husbands to see if they were
ok (outside knocking doors) and also hoping they would be able to give us magic information to help us. (you know, click your heels together 3 times, close your eyes and twitch your nose...) We had heard there were
75 mph winds outside (true) and didn't exactly feel like making a run for our car with our two strollers in the
almost flash flood rain.
As you can imagine, anxiety set in big time. The 2
Payless girls were very nice as they probably laughed internally after my ramblings...
Me: "So...
whatdoyoudoinatornado? (hesitant laugh and breath)
Wedon'tknowwhattodointornados.
We'refromthemountains. (another hesitant laugh)"
All I could picture in my head was a brief school lesson in my elementary class were I was taught to find low ground or ditch and cover my head. Seeing as how there were no available ditches in the middle of the 6 ft high
Payless shoe racks...I was beginning to panic.
Payless Girl 1 while smiling awkwardly: "Well, we have a bathroom in the back we can all go in if necessary."
Me thinking stupid thoughts: "My stroller alone won't fit in whatever bathroom you have."
Random lady on her cell phone while still trying on shoes: "I'm sorry honey....Is daddy not home yet?....Well if it gets worse, you know what they say, lay in the tub and put a mattress over you..."
Payless Girl 1 trying to calm the weird mountain girl (aka - me): "We're calling our manager right now, but if we have to close our store you two should go to the nearest hallway that leads to the bathroom, take your kids out of their strollers, and lay over them."
Long story short, I didn't have to lay
Navi on the ground and put her car seat over her while laying on it like I had first imagined in my head. We waited out the worst of the storm and drove home an hour or so later. All the while avoiding tree limbs on the road and trying not to focus on the uplifted tree with exposed roots on one side of the road.
Nate was in a farther away city that only experienced severe thunderstorms, and was able to make it home safely and only hydro-planing once.
In my next tornado warning I'll be a pro and I'll be able to lackadaisically peruse the
Payless isles and continue to try on shoes. Granted I may have done this in my most current experience to fake my panic, but I can't say for certain I was even trying on size 8s. Next time, the extremest of all extreme worst
situations probably won't be replaying over and over in my head. Next time there is a tornado warning in Texas (or Virginia for that matter) I'll be at
HOME in my
MOUNTAINS.