Scariest Day of My Life.....So Far!

Today is by far the scariest and weirdest day I have ever experienced!!! I don't even think typing this will even do it justice! When I woke up this morning it was gray and gloomy outside, but felt kind of warm, (and when I say warm, I mean above freezing!) warm enough to go out with just a hoodie on! It was about 47 degrees when I left the house to go to school to get some work done for the day. Then I went home and relaxed a little before I had class at 6pm and at this point it was 54 degrees! I get to class and we were working on things and around 7:30 I heard a noise that caught my attention. It sounded like the weather sirens!?! WHAT?!? This can't be right! So I said out loud for my instructor to hear me, because I don't think he heard it yet, "Is that the weather sirens?" And at this point another student had heard it too. Chef Frank went out in to hall to find out what to do because it was clear that we were in the midst of something! As he was doing that, I went online to weather.com and as soon as I entered the zip code of the school it popped up and said there was a tornado spotted at N Michigan Rd and to seek shelter immediately!!! THAT IS WHERE THE SCHOOL IS!!! As Chef Frank got back to the classroom waiting on instruction, I heard a noise...it was hail hitting the glass! Now, let me remind you that the pyramids are 70% glass!!! As soon as I heard the noise, I jumped up with my things in my hand and said I don't think so!!! (Most of you know I am deathly scared of storms...especially tornadoes!) About that time, they came in and told us all to get to the basement! So my class, the other classrooms as well as the other building occupants are all gathered in the lobby trying to get to the basement! For some unknown reason, the doors to the stairwell were locked? I DON"T GET IT??? So we had to wait on the elevators (not smart) to take us all to the basement. The elevator I got on decided it wanted to go to the top floor - 11 - and then come back down to go to the basement...during a tornado! Eventually we all made it down to the basement along with the students and instructors from Pyramid 1...I even saw the Dean of Academics down there with us! And yes...being true form...I got a few pictures of us in the basement waiting for the sign that all was well.

Me and Ross

Everyone huddled in groups The hallway in the basement full of people...and that was just a fraction of the people down there!

Ok...the scariest part then turns into the weirdest part and back to the scariest part! About 30 minutes later we got the word that we could return to our classroom. The first thing I did was look up weather.com again just to make sure we were truly in the clear! And we were, it said we were out of the tornado warnings. Around 8:30p we got a break and I went to look out the doors to see what it was like outside...well...IT WAS SNOWING!!! We went from 54 degrees and a tornado to snow that was swirling in circles. The wind had gotten up to 90mph and we were still dealing with huge wind gusts! Class was over and I was finally leaving the school around 10pm, as I walked out the door, the ground was completely frozen over! It was like an ice skating rink! And as the wind would hit me it started pushing me along the ice! I was trying to take it easy to make sure I didn't fall, but I was trying to hurry and get to my car because I could no longer feel my face or hands! I got to my car and my doors were frozen shut...so with my hands full I am trying to pry my doors open and hearing people screaming and laughing from falling on the ice! I finally get one my door open and try to get my stuff in and get going.
Trying to get out of the parking lot was proving to be difficult! I didn't think I was even going to make it home. The roads, parking lots, grass, cars, power lines, etc...completely froze up in a matter of an hour! It was very Day After Tomorrow if you've seen that movie! The ponds that had thawed out were completely frozen...looked like they were frozen solid! It was a scary ride home!
So, let me recap! It was 54 degrees at 7:30pm and we had a tornado touch down. An hour later at 8:30pm it was snowing! And when I got home around 10:30pm...it was 16 degrees!