Somewhere in the midst of this, I started to drift off into sleep. My sudoku game showed that I had been on the same game for 73:14, which means it was probably around an hour, because it typically takes less than 10 minutes for the difficult level. What alerted me was the siren. The tornado siren. And the TCC policemen making their way through the building telling everyone to take cover and get away from the windows. I instantly went into panic mode. If you've been watching, I tend to be easily sent into panic. Suddenly, I was nowhere near sleeping, a siren was blaring, the few people in the building were yelling, and I had gone from pretty much asleep, to in a daze, to super-alert.
Instantly I tried calling my mom, but no luck. My phone pretended like it was trying to dial the number. I had almost a full signal. No luck again. And again. I was insisting on standing by the window, in hopes that would help my service....as they continued to yell at people to stay away from the windows. I look up, and suddenly I notice it's also pouring down rain, and dime to quarter-size hail is falling from the sky, it almost looks like it's snowing.
I freeze. My cognition stops. I'm standing there open-mouthed staring out the window. By this time it is quieter, except for the rain, and the officer telling me to get away from the window. Obviously, I wasn't comprehending. I watched as....nothing happened. The sirens stopped, after about 15 minutes. I dropped back into my chair, and at THAT time...pulled my iPod out to check out the weather. It's still pouring down rain, and the thunder is shaking the windows, almost as much as the iPod is shaking in my hands, as I try to log on the network on the tiny screen, missing letters and getting frustrated.
The officer is still there, somewhat curious as to why I wasn't following directions I suppose, and the only words I could seem to muster at the time were "and I thought I had parked close to the building today, and I left my umbrella in my car. How am I going to eat?" That's it. He lost interest and left. I finally got my phone to dial out and called my mom to find out what was going on at home. Just some light hail there. I don't remember if she mentioned sirens or not, but I think those sirens on campus are about 20x louder than they are in the residential areas, seeing as I can never hear them when they go off at home, and I don't live in the city.
At that point, my only concern became that my umbrella was in my car, and I was not. I was in the building, and I didn't have my umbrella. I didn't have a way to get the umbrella unless I went outside. I was stuck in a tunnel of thinking: umbrella in car....me in building...umbrella in car....me in building....because I wanted to avoid the thought of the tornado warning that had just occurred. I wasn't even thinking about the class I was waiting for, just the umbrella, and my lack of proximity to it- in my car... (ps, that is my car, that is NOT my umbrella. For the record.)
Eventually, I went to class, and it had stopped raining. I still continued to think about my umbrella. After class, when I walked to my car, I realized I had unconsciously parked it under a tree, which probably helped to alleviate any hail damage that may have occurred. Go me! Oh, and my professor has planned an economics exam for next week. The day after my presentation. Go figure. *facepalm*
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