where cider meets condensed milk: Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

where cider meets condensed milk

Friday, January 11, 2008

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

Wisconsin was not the chosen site for filming "Twister" but it gets exciting weather sometimes. Last summer when I went on a speedy trip to Madison, a record-breaking 24 tornadoes touched down in the state, and we spent a good part of an afternoon in Scott's Storm Shack with sirens ringing throughout the neighborhood. Naively believing that I had *nothing* to do with this anomaly (or the tsunami, or the typhoon blitz of '04) , I returned to Wisco this month to find below-freezing January temperatures and snowdrifts. All clear.

After a few days, it warmed up considerably, causing thick fog. My sister and parents and I headed from Madison to Janesville in the haze, when suddenly were caught in a foggy white-out on I-90. After a few tense minutes, traffic halted, and would remain so for 3 hours due to a horrific 100-car smash parade less than a mile ahead. A minute earlier, and that could have been us. If fate has anything to do with it, all the tiny things that delayed us, including the alarm going off when I walked out of Borders that morning, may have kept us safe. Fate or the justification of a would-be shoplifter? Odd that it was the 2nd time that week a security alarm went off for me...

Sarah and I left on a bus to Chicago in the morning, arriving in balmy 60 degree weather. Traffic was also jammed up, due to a visit from President Bush. This caused an equal amount of commuter ire as the killer fog had, except these angry people had picket signs. And, lo and behold, a rare tornado touched down that day in southern Wisconsin, smashing a town to bits. It's probably my fault. Alternately, we could blame global warming or feel guilty as a nation for not paying enough attention to Al Gore.

Non-disastrous adventures: seeing Lorian in Middleton! She's a bonafide interior designer now, which means we're both on completely different tracks than those long ago freshman days in Bobb-McCulloch. And of course, I saw my family: g-rents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all. We all watched the Seahawks limp to victory over the Redskins, which now means they'll battle Green Bay in the next round. Family combat! Go Hawks.

Cousin time at its finest, courtesy Heidi's precocious computer and technology abilities. She took, saved, edited, and emailed these pictures before Sars and I even knew what was happening. Back when we were 8, man, the internet wasn't even INVENTED. (Well, maybe it was... ask Al Gore.)

posted by Raychaa @ 2:38 AM

2 comments:

At 8:09 AM, Jon K. said…

I'm so impressed that you keep blogging. Everyone seems to have completely forgotten about their blogs since August. Bonne chance belle.
At 5:29 PM, Raychaa said…

Now that everyone online is gone, I need to make new friends now, or maybe just "friends" to stalk online if they have funny blogs. I'll shop for some when I'm back in Asia.