One of my favorite things about summertime is the storms. The outrageous, amazing, beautiful, loud, house-shaking, booming, scary movie, better wrap yourself in a blanket and have some hot chocolate and snuggle with your honey thunderstorms that hit the South are this wondrous creation that you have to experience to believe. I’ve mentioned my love of the storms while I was growing up in Illinois. There are few things I like better than a good thunderstorm. I like to sit in my car and watch it through the sunroof. Or through the windows of my house. Or if I’m at a house with a screened in porch, that is the bees knees, right there. If a slight breeze is to be had to give me goose pimples, oh goodness, that is about the best to be had.

It’s about my idealized version of heaven.

I do love a good storm.

Not everyone shares my feelings of a storm. No, not everyone.

Not even everyone in my house. The humans are fine with it. Generally, they think of it as a burden to their baseball schedules. Well, with the exception of this human who clearly finds it a delightful slice of life. The turtle and the cat seem to be a-ok oblivious to the storm and think of it as another sound effect to a life of monotony. And 3 out of 4 dogs like to snuggle under the blanket and beg for the hot chocolate.

But that 1 dog…she is an unhappy little noodlehead when it comes to thunderstorms. She’s a much better predictor than the weatherman, bless his heart. I can tell a storm is coming about 45 minutes early. Her ears will perk and the whining starts. She can be in her kennel or in the house.

When she’s out of her kennel, immediately she jumps on the couch and her head goes into my lap. She begs for ear rubbing and looks at me like we are going to die. Right now. She’s serious. Rub her ears because we are going to bite it.

T-minus 20 minutes to storm. Her butt starts to wiggle and she tries to put all 35 pounds of her directly onto my lap.

T-minus 10 minutes to storm. I hear a wailing like that of a banshee who has been caught by a death eater who has just been told this is his last snack and he must om nom nom before lethal injection.

T-minus 3 minutes and counting. She paces the floor like an expectant father while continuing to wail and look at me like I’m a jerk who won’t stop the weather. This includes me looking at her like her voicebox is optional in dogs.

Storm-time. She is back in my lap, shaking like a leaf while I croon to her and whisper all kinds of human soothing noises that dogs don’t understand because, according to my son, “Dogs don’t speak English.” After about 5 minutes, Molly is fine again because, “Oh, hey, it’s just a storm.”

The three tiny dogs are looking at her like, “The big dumb dog just got it, let’s go fight over our chewy!” and the world is again at peace in the house.

So, please read this post. You’ll be glad you did. It speaks to the heart of how Nashvillians feel right now.

Hello America Letter

Because I’m tired, I’m also incoherent. I should have written this post about 5 hours ago, but I was just really happy to be in my house. I spent the weekend at my friend Bryan’s parent’s house (did you get that?) where I was essentially trapped for the weekend due to the weather. Thankfully, his parents are gracious and were incredibly accommodating.

Please keep the people of Nashville in your thoughts. Nashville has a small downtown area and is made up of the surrounding areas, all which were hit very hard. We have many dead and our schools in the downtown area are still out. There is possible contamination of our water and we are under orders to conserve.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Credit to my anonymous picture donor, who knows who he is.

We are not anonymous. We are a community of people who stick together and work hard to make Nashville an amazing place to live. This is devastating.

Edit: Please go read this link for another personal flood story: http://twt.tl/6lUMyOp

Originally, the tone of this post was going to be about how beautiful and amazing the snow is and about how we only get snow once a year or so and how that is such a shame. I was going to tell you of my amazement and how my mouth dropped open last Friday when it snowed all day long and I felt like I was living in a snow globe and I saw the utter beauty of the snow.

I was going to tell you about how my dogs romped through the snow like puppies, or at least Molly did. The little ones think it’s too cold and have decided to pee in the freaking house instead of being good dogs and going outside. They are so little and the snow was so high and they don’t like falling down into snow. With the exception of Prudence, who has made a pact with the Devil to not fall through snow so she can run through our fence, get out of the yard, run down the street and around the corner and force me to run after her in my pajamas. My neighbors loved that one. Truly.

You were going to hear all about how AJ was mystified and played outside for hours with his friends. How snowmen were plentiful and the children were happy. Instead, AJ played outside a couple of times and proclaimed it “too cold and icy” and has been in the house driving me crazy.

I was going to tell you, with pride, how people in Nashville really aren’t as bad as I’ve led you to believe. I know I’ve complained about how they drive in the rain, but they did so well with the snow! Nope. Everything shut down to the point where the only things open were McDonald’s and the liquor store. Thank goodness. Leon warned me that I “really shouldn’t drive unless I had to” and therefore I have been here. At home. Since Thursday night. Home. Where I have placated myself with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lots and lots of napping and doing homework. The weather has kept friends away and made me a lot of fun. I have spent an inordinate amount of time looking at online goods and it is to the point where I no longer want anything because I have looked at everything so much that I am already bored with it.

I am not a happy camper. No, Sir. Not this one.

I grew up in Illinois. This piddly amount of snow and ice is par for the course. The idea of places shutting down and school being closed for this is crazy to me. I have things to do!

But…

It’s pretty. It’s glimmering, shimmering and shiny! And I’ve missed it. It’s not the snow’s fault that people around here react like we’re all getting smallpox because there is a little snow and ice. For one week a year, I get to pretend that I live in a Winter Wonderland.

It’s worth it.