Destruction

I can't begin to know how to write about this. As all of you know, an F5 tornado ripped a 43 mile path through Iowa this weekend, destroying anything in a half-mile path. It is a sight unlike any other, like an explosion or a war zone.

Families have lost everything they know in as little as 30 seconds. As I sit useless in my apartment tonight, I know the best thing I can do is pray hard for all those affected by this powerful destructive force. And although I'd love to be there helping in the clean up, I know that families and volunteers are working hard with a resounding sense of unity.

There is hope in all of this. The people of Iowa are strong and resilient. The winds break walls, but not spirits. Parkersburg and New Hartford and all those affected will stand tall and work hard together to make things better than they ever were.

We are so fortunate in this world. We've been given so much and are so incredibly blessed. So count your blessing tonight. Give thanks to God for the many wonderful things He gives us in life like family, strength, and constant love and care. He is in control...even in unfathomable chaos.

Whaaaaaaaaa!

The following is a true story.

This afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, actually being productive (which hasn't happened so much these days). I was working in Word to develop an artistic invitation to the Peer Advising retreat that is coming up around the corner, checking my email, and ok, facebooking.

A sudden and extremely loud wailing blared from near my end of the office. I looked around, somewhat annoyed, and assume that the fire alarm had gone off in an absurd, solid tone wail. I continued to work until I noticed that people were beginning to gather around my desk.

A few seconds later, Heidi had grabbed my laptop off of its docking station and began wildly hitting any button and unplugging any cord she could find. I did what anyone would do in that situation: I said, "What the heck?!?" and then got up and walked away. Upon a manic shutdown, the wail had been silenced, and it was confirmed that the insane noise was indeed from my little laptop. Seriously. It was as loud of the fire alarm.

Turns out, sometimes your internal microphone in your laptop can turn itself on without any touching of microphone controls. And if said microphone happens to be turned up loud enough and the accompanying speakers have also somehow been turned up loud enough, the result is a "WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA" that very closely resembles a fire alarm.

Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed, but I could only be so embarrassed because the IT guy that came to rescue me had no solution to my little problem. I can only assume that he must have been just as embarrassed. All I'm saying is, watch out. This could inexplicably happen to you. Keep an eye on your seemingly well-behaving laptop; it could revolt and try to blow itself up.

"Hello, this is OnStar."

I feel that I will forever pay for the OnStar system for my car, as I discovered this weekend. I managed to lock my keys in my new car while visiting my grandma, and my spare set was in my house in Belmont. The rest of the incident went something like this:

Dad: What's information's number?
Me: 411
Dad: *dials 411* OnStar, please.
Me: *grabs phone*
OnStar: Hello, this is OnStar... ... ...Alright, ma'am, I'm going to unlock your car for you now. Have a great day.
*click*

What a sweet feature! I will pay pretty much whatever it takes to keep that little ditty around. :)

Beautiful Sunny Day

All day today as I was in my cubicle, the sun shone through the giant windows that are at my back. And all day, I wanted nothing more that to get outside, get some healthy color, boost my vitamin D, or whatever, but I couldn't. Then, the very instant I get home, when I have every intention of going outside to revel in the aforementioned sun, it begins to rain.

I'm glad Monday's over.

Cushioned Landing

When I really should be working, at 2:40 in the afternoon, I am instead enjoying...or should I say trying to enjoy a Butterfinger Bar. The building that I work in has a sole vending machine that requires a nearly half mile walk of shame to get to, but it does contain good things such as Snickers, Butterfinger...well, who really needs anything else. But there is a predicament with having Butterfingers in the third row up in a vending machine. They are, in fact, fairly brittle and breakable. And when dropped from the third row of a vending machine, they tend to, well, shatter. And this afternoon, this all led me to ponder why vending machines don't have a padded tray for goodness like Butterfingers to fall into. It would avoid the whole trying to lick up shards of chocolate and peanutbutteriness from my desk action altogether. Your thoughts on the matter?

It Had to End This Way

Go figure. I should have even called it or bet money on the fact that my travel season would end in a most unusual way.

First, this week I had the privilege of driving fleet car #12. For those of you not familiar with fleet car #12, let me elaborate. Fleet car #12 is one of the oldest cars in the fleet, and as a Taurus, as most of the fleet are, it would usually be considered reliable even at 160,000 miles. And I will admit that fleet car #12 has never stranded me anywhere, it has had some hiccups that I would prefer not to deal with while dealing with Chicago traffic. For instance, the gas pedal sticks at the top, so most often in situations where one would be required to accelerate, nothing happens until *bam!* you're catapulted into hyper-drive. And a problem that is fantastic to couple with acceleration challenges, are the brakes. The breaks are the opposite of touchy, and practically standing up in the driver's seat is required to make a full and complete stop. Besides that, fleet car #12 smells something terrible...it reminds me of rotting food, but from a distance...the smell of approaching a dumpster from a half mile away, downwind. And finally, fleet car #12 has a strange bar or cord that I would imagine is holding the driver's seat together, but it is on the person side of the padding rather than the inside. Most days after driving fleet car #12 I feel a slight bruise on my spine...quite uncomfortable.

Although the fact that driving fleet car #12 was not especially pleasing, that was not the most strange part of my day (note, it is only 10:00). I began my day by picking up said fleet car #12 at 6:45 and got on the road to head to my last school visits of the semester. By 8:00 I had two voicemails on my phone. I would have caught the calls had I not been singing extremely boldly in said car. Within fifteen minutes this morning both of my last two schools had called and told me not to bother showing up. No students were signed up, and it wouldn't be worth my while. By doing some quick mental math, one can gather that I had already driven for an hour in the south and easterly direction. An hour. So, with an exasperated, "What the heck!" to Tara, I turned around in Nora, Illinois, where the local (there may only be one in that town) was walking to get his mail and provided me with a curious look while I was making a u-turn near his house.

So, now, at 10:00, I have already been "working" for three and a half hours and I have accomplished absolutely nothing but wasting gas. But hey, gas is cheap, right? Welcome to my daily life in recruitment. The spring travel season had to end this way.