Everyone keeps asking if I’ve made friends yet.
Fall is an apprehensive time around here. Everyone is obsessed with weather, and rightly so. I overhear ten-thousand conversations a day about active weather off the coast of Africa that might turn into a tropical system. Lucky for all of us, I am obsessed with weather, too.
I watch the weather channel 24 hours a day and have the local radar widget on my computer, phone and ipod. I wake up to Jim Cantore and fall asleep to Jennifer Lopez (the meteorologist, not the singer). I love local on the eights and the tropical update at 50 past the hour. I have the music memorized and I watch storm stories late at night. When I was little and my family returned from vacations, I couldn’t WAIT to run inside to see what I missed on the Weather Channel while we were gone. My family can attest to this. It’s true.
I also love tracking storms. In another life I would have been a tornado chaser. People give me tornado mousepads and buttons and books, and when there are hurricanes, they call me with questions about why the storm is taking a certain track versus another knowing I have been briefed by the Weather Channel itself. I explain about the high and low pressure systems and feel giddy. It’s just all so delicious to me. I think, in reality, I am a nervous person and I enjoy something that updates me every 8 minutes. Whatever. I fit right in here is what I’m saying.
When I first arrived, we had to fill out a personal evacuation plan and sign up for text or email alerts. We got an alert today about Gustav. Just an alert to be on the lookout for an alert. I like how they think.
Katrina hit on the first day of school in 05. Orientation is Thursday, the storm is supposed to hit on Monday, and the first day of class is Tuesday. Everyone here is very concerned about the first day of school. All my friends (from the bookstore) are locals who go to Loyola or Tulane. They spent the first day of school in 05 evacuating, and spent the first semester of the 05-06 school year as strangers at other schools in Texas and Alabama and Georgia.
This says it all.
I really hope we have a first day of school here. (I already have an outfit and all.)
Hello 