Just stuff I’ve been thinking about lately. Keeps me up nights, let me tell you!

I’ve always been the sensitive sort. I cry at dumb stuff, like TV commercials, music videos, lyrics or prose that move me…

But now, I cry at the drop of a hat about damn near everything!  Is this normal for someone my age?

Because I don’t like it. I’m supposed to be this badass tough rock chick, and I’m crying over spilt milk (literally and figuratively).

Yeah, I know, that’s just the way I’m wired, blahblahblah, but come ON!

I have been crying over the senseless loss of life during the tornado that hit in Moore, Oklahoma on Monday. So many children and babies. And I’ve been getting pissed at that “cult” from Kansas (you know the one. The attention whores) planning to picket funerals of those who died, including children!

Then there’s that senile preacher dude in Virginia Beach who said we got hit because we don’t pray hard enough. I’m waiting for the next big hurricane to wipe him and his “university” off the map. I might even laugh when it happens, IF it happens before he dies (he’s getting up there in the age department, but I’ve always thought he was a bit “off”).

When did I turn into this emotional sap who, when she’s not crying over stuff, is getting pissed off enough to tell a supposed man of God to go take a flyin’ leap.

I do have my moments, you know. Don’t mess with me and mine, and don’t you dare diss the state I’ve called home for a decade. We’re pretty damn tough here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

I might unleash the hounds from hell on your ass.

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I’m Stef and this is where it’s @ !~

Joplin, Missouri hit by EF-5 tornado

This afternoon, Joplin was hit by a devastating tornado, with lots of property damage, disrupted services, and fires. Eighty-nine  people dead as of this morning, though officials expect that to be a high number as people are located and removed from debris.

There is currently no electricity, cell or landline phone service. If you have loved ones in the area, and you cannot reach them, that’s part of the reason why. Contact the Red Cross and they should be able to get you in touch with the chapter that serves Joplin.

Oklahomans know this all too well. The May 3, 1999 tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area (Moore, Norman, Choctaw, Midwest City and Del City, OK) was an (then) F-5 tornado with windspeeds up to 300 mph. It was because of this tornado that the Fujita Scale (measures the strength of the winds of a tornado) became the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF).

I didn’t live in Oklahoma in 1999 (I was still in Norfolk, VA then. My niece, who’s now 12, was not quite 3 months old), so I didn’t witness this first hand. Since I’ve lived here, nothing that significant has hit where I’ve lived. In 2009, there was a tornado in a section of Edmond called Oak Tree, but that wasn’t near where I live near UCO. The rain and the wind and the hail was bad enough that day (February 10th).

Please pray for all those in Joplin who are affected by today’s tornado. It will take a while for things to go back to normal in town. For the people affected by it, it will be with them forever.

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I’m Stef, and this is where it’s @ !~

Roses at the library

As seen at the Chambers Library at UCO…

(The entrance to the library, taken today -4.27.09-)

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We had tornado warnings all night last night. I heard the flags flapping in the wind and the thunder during the storms.

However, both the Prednisone and the eardrops are gone (they were only supposed to last a week). I still have the Cipro and I’m still taking that. I still have the Dizzies, my left ear is still bugging me, and I only have about 70% of my hearing (my estimate).

So roses near the University library is a nice thing on a rainy day.

That’s all from where I sit.

–MorelaterZ–

Where you been?

He’s certainly not been watching the Weather Channel lately.

My ex calls me this morning in the middle of my test in History of Journalism. I have my phone on silent, but it still vibrates. So in the quiet of the classroom where I am, I hear “bzzzz, bzzz, bzzz”. I’m not really supposed to look at my phone, but as soon as I saw who it was, I’m starting to get annoyed… he’d called three times in the span of about 5 minutes.

When I was done with the test, I was able to leave, so I called my voicemail. The message he’s left is this: he’d heard that there was a tornado in Edmond and was everyone okay?

I texted him back (because I wasn’t sure I could speak to him without getting mad) that the tornado was LAST WEEK, and where had he been? Was he not watching TV or on the internet in the last week, because the tornado was all over the news!

I have yet to hear back from him.

I suspect he’s been preoccupied with his studies for his MSFT certification and his new girlfriend, so he’s not sitting for hours in front of his computer monitoring the Weather Channel.

I swear, if he were standing right here, I might have to either knock some sense into his thick skull or choke the living crap out of him. He knows I’m in school, so why was it so freakin’ urgent to call me right then (around 10:45am his time– he’s an hour ahead of me)?

And for what, to tell me something that I already lived through?

I’ll call him when I calm down.

Maybe.

Lord, give me strength!

That’s all from where I sit.

–MorelaterZ–

In a tornado shelter

…with +/- 250 0thers in the Liberal Arts building for about half an hour. I never saw so many people with cell phones in one place in my life. And I was right there with them, calling Mom, texting others.

After we were allowed to leave, it seemed that the “fun” was just beginning for me.

Old North from on campus, dark clouds.

Education Building (I think), with dark clouds. Taken on campus.

Old North taken from the bus shelter on University at Ayers.

Hail Storm, with me stuck in the bus shelter. Hail stones were about quarter size. On University near Ayers.

Hail stones on the bus shelter roof.

Tornado siren was going off by this time. I headed for the nearby 7-11, then saw my bus, so I went and got on the bus and waited to be taken to as close to home as I could get.

I finally get home after this adventure. Angels were definitely watching over me today!

But it’s February… but I’m hearing that tornadoes in February are unusual but not unheard of.

Still a little shaken up, but I’m okay. I need a hug, I think. From a certain someone who’s been through all this before…

That’s all from where I sit.

–MorelaterZ–

Tornado sirens and huge hailstones

Check this out:

 Look how big this thing is! The grassy area at my apartment were littered with hailstones!

The clouds were looking ominous, too, with some real cyclonic movement. It passed us by and ended up somewhere near Choctaw.

The weird thing about this storm… I had just returned from the store just moments before all hell broke loose. It wasn’t even raining!

Dodged another tornadic bullet… but it was too close. Way too close.

That’s all from where I sit.

–MorelaterZ–

Well, so much for sleeping late!

Because there is no Oceanography today (because a lot of people have trouble finding enough time in between classes and other obligations, such as a job, to take the midterm), I was going to sleep in til at least 8am. So of course, I automagically wake up at 6:30am.

Damn body clock.

And, I was going to head to campus around 9:30am, do last minute studying for about an hour, then go to the Testing Center and take the test.

I wonder if I could get another hour of shut eye?

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After the wild and frenzied weather from last night, we’re supposed to see much colder temps and some snow today.

Oh. Joy.

Then, tomorrow, it’s supposed to get reasonably warm again.

I wish the weather would make up its mind. Is it winter or spring for cryin’ out loud?!

That’s all from where I sit.

–MorelaterZ–