Exciting Day! (Still Alive)

Wow, they are estimating that about a dozen tornados may have hit the Dallas area yesterday. I'll try to attach a photo I took on my cell phone of the TV showing where they think they hit.

Our house and my office are both very close to being in the line, but I think the nearest hit was at least 5 miles away.  We're more in the center of Dallas. 

I haven't posted a book review, but one of the books I've read this year is about who survives disaster and why, so I felt like I took it more seriously than I would have a year ago.

As soon as I saw there was a warning, I put my wristlet, car keys and phone in my pockets. As soon as I heard the sirens outside, I grabbed a stack of reading material and a pen, and I went to sit in a stairwell. For the first round of sirens, I was basically the only one sitting there, but I read for about 45 interruption-free minutes! Got through an entire report from counsel and almost all the supporting exhibits. Oddly, it was quite productive. Then the sirens had stopped, so I went back to my office.

I finished my half-eaten lunch and started emailing a response to defense counsel based on the report I'd read.  Then the sirens started again, so I grabbed another stack of documents and went back to my seat in the stairs.  This time the sky was really dark, and the entire office was supposed to evacuate. 

Of course, just like at the big firm where I worked, a vast majority of the attorneys elected to keep working and just shut their office doors, while most of the support staff evacuated to the stairwells. 

Wonder what that says about people.

Anyway, since this was an official evac, there were people in their shiny orange vests and lots of people brought their flashlights (one of the things I learned from 9/11 is that phones work well in a pinch to provide light). 

I do not know a single person in that photo!  In the company where I work, the attorneys are all part of a wholly-owned subsidiary, and we have basically no association with the rest of the company.  None of the people in this pic work for the same sub as I do.  Anyway, during the second evacuation, I didn't get as much work done.  All those people were talking and laughing. 

After about 15 minutes, we were released back to our offices, but I still heard sirens outside, and it was quiet so I could work again, so I stayed alone in the stairwell for about 15 more minutes and did some more reading. 

I could hear hail hitting the roof, but my car was covered (and hubby's car is safe at home; the one time my car had major hail damage, it was parked at the airport and I was out of town).  I left work around 7 (one bonus to having hubby in Italy without me and no dinner plans last night was that I could work late!  very useful since I'm feeling buried and overwhelmed at work), and was a bit nervous about my drive home -- I'd seen on FB lots of people showing downed trees, reporting power outages, etc.  But I made it home quite easily and breathed a sigh of relief when I pushed the garage button in my car and the door raised.  And I was happy enough that the garage door opening happened uneventfully that when I saw hubby's car in the garage, I must have remembered he was gone or I was already happy enough to be safe and sound, because I didn't have the usual let-down I feel lately when I remember that he's not here. 

Only about one more day and I can get out of here, and on to my brother's sweet couch!  I am feeling so homesick and miserable these last few days, I think being away from this empty house and with family will make it so much better.