I mean, yeah, no one’s a big fan of tornadoes. I don’t see anyone cheering when they have to take shelter in the basement.

In the interest of full disclosure, Spring is my favorite season. I love the colors and the smells and the warmth (but not too warm of warmth…just enough so I don’t have to wear my wool coat anymore). I love the flowers and the garden-planting and the sounds of lawn mowers cranking up again. It’s a great time of year.

Minus it being the start of storm season.

I’ve always been anxious around storms. The thunder and lightening make me unrealistically nervous. I don’t find the pounding rain soothing. It kind of gets on my nerves when I have to keep unplugging my computer to save it from power surges, and power outages are not my definition of a jolly good time.

But the worst part…the absolute worst part is the tornadoes.

In a way, it’s ironic. I have a rather irrational fear of tornadoes, considering I’ve never actually ended up in one. But my favorite movie is Wizard of Oz and I was addicted to the show Storm Chasers for a few years.

Yeah, I’m a little backwards.

The very idea of tornadoes (outside of my movies or TV) makes me nervous. It could be on the other side of the city, and I still won’t sleep well. It doesn’t help that a tornado siren is located somewhere near my house, so when my county goes on warning, my ears get blasted away. I always get a little jittery whenever I have to go take shelter. And I’ve gotten into this unnerving habit of immediately taking stuff with me to “save,” just in case–my laptop, my first teddy bear (Bunky), my sorority pin.

Fortunately, I’ve figured out ways to relieve the anxiety. In the case of taking shelter, I always take a book with me to read. If I’m reading, I don’t let myself think about what’s going on around me. And if we don’t have to take shelter, I blast my music.

So what inspired this week’s random post? It could possibly be the 2am wake-up call I had this morning when the tornado sirens blared because of the tornado hovering over the other side of the city. It made for a rather tired Erin the rest of the day.