Hurrication, Part Deux

Wilma was the perfect hurricane, in the sense that it resulted in a day off work and near-zero inconvenience for me personally. Good job, Wilma! She my homey.

It was a strange storm in the sense that once it was done, it was... done. The sky was blue, the sun came out, birds were chirping, small animals nuzzled up against Snow White. I skipped out to the dumpster with the trash about five hours after landfall.

Good thing it didn't last any longer than it did, because my typical hurricane emergecy procedure of baking was right out due to the fact that I haven't worked out in a week and feel like a big giant ox in Maybelline eyeshadow. So I made hamburger casserole instead, the mixing-bowl for which isn't nearly as much fun to lick.

This was my first real live weather emergency as a professor, and I demonstrated great academic leadership by yelling at everybody via email that they had better have everything done for class on Tuesday, because now there was no excuse since they'd had a day off, you hear me? Whereas I put the day to excellent use by alphabetizing my unicorn sticker collection.

The University of Airplanes waited until morning to cancel class, which meant that I had a two-hour period of hovering over the TV, reliving a childhood of waiting for the call for a snow day for Oak Hills School District-- were we off, or weren't we? From time to time I ventured out to the porch, and nearly got my ponytail blown off; the ROTC kids were out in this for PT. Then I'd say, "Ohellno," and run back inside. So, bascially the whole thing was a wargame. If the terrorists want to send us a tropical storm, too bad, suckas, cuz our cadets are all over marching around in one.

The word came about an hour before class was to start, after I was already dressed, lunch packed, poncho unfurled. I called my retired-teacher mother in a fit and she laughed very hard at me: "You try shoveling your car out from under a few inches of wet snow and then hearing that class is cancelled." But-- but the hurricane made my hair damp!

seriously! at: mb@blondechampagne.com