Today a tornado hit in town. I was in my Computer Design 2 classroom on my regular Mac computer slowly working on my newest project (slow because I didn't have any catchy ideas for it). Around 1:10 pm when the class officially starts, the power shuts off. I complained that my Interpol cd was caught inside the machine. Oh well. So, what then? We talked about what to do, play games? I had all of my Legos with me (I was going to photograph them) but all we did was talk. The wind blew hard outside and we heard that the students were being herded to the basement of Lockman Hall because of the tornado siren that started going off. I was a little scared but not worried. We started heading out of the classroom but Ann Franz and I ran back to grab purses and phones (I already had my camera on me). While other students were shuffling to safety, the majority of my class, including my teacher just stood outside, took pictures, looked at the clouds, and talked. We returned to the classroom, still waiting for the power to come back on. It didn't and the sirens started to sound once more. We went outside again, but since it was so windy we decided to avoid the pricks of the blowing sand. Eventually, after returning indoors, the power came back on. We found out that other classes were dismissed, but not ours. We stayed for the entire class period. I got my cd back and continued working on my project. I didn't finish and I still don't know exactly what I want to do with it. I'll figure something out. We talked about the next assignment and I left shortly after the end of class. Usually I stick around until 6:00 or 6:30, but I felt like leaving. I don't enjoy not having some sort of sense of where my project is going. So, I went to visit my friend, Meagan who was working at Metro, a coffee shop on the corner of 17th and Lorraine. We talked for a bit about relationships and she asked me for any advice I had to offer. I left at around 6:00 for home.
While driving home I noticed the large smoke cloud that was growing from one of the fires outside of town. I had heard about some of the windows of the Hutchinson hospital being blown out and the tree branch that knocked out one of my friend's parents. I saw a lot of fire trucks on one road along with some police cars and people standing out on their lawns talking about the events.
I don't know exactly what happened, but hopefully I'll find out if I watch the news tonight.
7:57 p.m. - 2006-03-30