It’s A Twister!

On Friday, as I sat holding my giant-not-good-for-the-environment-plastic-bottle-of-water, I was openly wishing on Facebook and Instagram that it was a giant-not-good-for-my-liver-bottle-of-vodka. Suddenly, it sounded like someone hopped up on the metal roof of our building and started walking across, causing everything in our little office to rattle and shake.

I didn’t really think much of it. If you’ve ever lived on the bottom floor of an apartment, then you know that most of the time, the people who live above you walk around like this:

“Are they working on the roof again?” I asked my officemate, to which she answered, “I don’t know but my mouse is shaking in my hand.”

*SPOILER ALERT* They were not working on the roof. There was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake about 130 miles west of us that was felt as far away as Wichita, Kansas. We haven’t had one of those in a while, so we had almost forgotten what those felt like.

Mother Nature was not done, however. The next day, she decided to drop torrential rains all day and spin off a couple of small tornadoes just to show us she still cares. Thanks, Luv.

Apparently, that was just a warm-up, because as I sit here enjoying the last of what was a beautiful, sunny day, we are being told to prepare for an almost literal shitstorm across the state on Monday. As usual, though, even the meteorologists can’t agree on how bad it will be:

Gotta love it.

I find that most Oklahomans (and those of us who have been here long enough to call ourselves Oklahoman by way of transplant) tend to keep a sense of humor about it all. It’s not that we don’t take things seriously. It’s that the killer tornadoes tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

We are well known for going out to look rather than take shelter like a sane person should.

And in case you need to know the difference between a “watch” and a “warning”…

They’ve closed schools in central Oklahoma and several here locally in northeastern Oklahoma in anticipation of the severe weather, which I’ve never seen them do before since I’ve lived here. With Monday being the sixth anniversary of the EF5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma (and more specifically, that hit a couple of schools while school was in session), the devastation is still fresh in people’s minds.

So, yes, Oklahomans do know how to take things seriously, and we do remember. We also pull together when this kind of thing happens and it actually gives me hope for people (until the next stupid thing happens).

Since my posts are set to auto-publish ahead of time, I have no idea how this is all going to play. I’ll probably be spending the day like this in front of the weather reports:

I’m sure everything will be fine. However, if something bad does happen, I’m going to be really pissed that my last meal was turkey jerky and a cheese stick.

Stay weird, my friend. Normal is boring. And stay safe!