Twister

It's a bird! It's a plane! No... it's a State Trooper!

Stay calm Noodle Fans, I was not injured in yesterday's ridiculous tornado that blew through Westchester. It's true I was just a hop, skip and jump away from where it touched down (so close that one of the nurses in the ER told me she saw the funnel), but me, my entire family and all of my friends and coworkers were fortunately unscathed. As were most people in Westchester County at the time, thank God. The hospital did try to prepare for the worst though, so the ER kind of went through "emergency mode" emptying out all the beds to make room for anyone possibly injured from the building that collapsed nearby. And actually, they really did go crazy-- when they sent up a patient, all I knew about her was her name and that she was on oxygen therapy... and that she had to stay on the stretcher in the hall since there wasn't a bed available just yet on my unit. Sheesh!

Funny thing, though. Even though nobody was hurt, I didn't realize it was such a bad storm until after my shift ended. I was battling myself about whether or not I should go to the gym and at the last minute decided that even though I didn't want to, I should go. But as I left the hospital campus and drove off, I discovered that the road leading to near my gym was blocked off by a police barricade. I was secretly thrilled. Until I learned that it was blocked because a store down the road had been literally blown to bits by the tornado, and that across the street from the gym a truck had been slammed into a bunch of gas pumps and they were disabling the pumps to avoid an explosion.

Man, that was enough excitement for me. I guess I'm just really glad I don't live in the Midwest.