Tornado Watch

Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Chicago, Illinois, United States
As I was leaving Minnesota today, there was a severe storm and tornado alert. I was awake early, so I left early and happened to outrun it most of the day, but I'm sitting here at my window in Chicago (well, west of Chicago) watching the storm come in and being alert for tornadoes. I've been in tornado alerts before, but I've never seen a real one. :(

I took it easy today, just drove to Chicago, giving myself plenty of time for traffic and stuff . There's a lot of construction - what's new - and lord knows it's never any fun driving into airports. I got to Chicago in plenty of time, so I fuelled up, and then realised I had enough time to check in at my hotel and drop my bags off there, rather than dragging them to the airport and on to the hotel.

The Polish lady at the desk was very nice to me, and we got on great, and I happened to be looking up the hotel online later, and the reviews from Americans call her a Russian lady and say she's horrible and rude. Yay for European relations!

So I drove back to the airport to return the car, and that was pretty simple, and then got bussed to the terminal and chatted up by a Kentucky guy who ALSO thought I was from Arlington. Everyone thinks I say "Arlington" when I say "Ireland"!!! And everyone is shocked that I'm travelling around on my own, and doubly shocked that I'm driving. "Especially in the U.S.!" What? Like it's hard?!

(That's a line from Legally Blonde) (I also do not lead with "hi, I'm travelling on my own, will you kidnap me, dodgy person?!" I assess the situation very carefully .)

I bought a packed lunch there, which turned out to be very nice! Then eventually I realised the hotel shuttle does not just appear at the airport, so I got a taxi back. The taxi guy was Chinese, and he started going to the wrong hotel first and I corrected him. And then he told me he was going the right way, because the road was closed and there was a detour and he had to go north. And I argued that I had just driven there from the hotel to return a car, and he realised he was caught rotten. So we u-turned and went the correct way, and I only gave him a $1.95 tip. :P

Now I'm relaxing and watching the lightning and the wind out the window, and trying to decipher the thunder from the planes. Exciting times!


PS

So it turns out to be NOT THAT DIFFICULT to differentiate thunder from planes when you're in a freaking emergency. Sideways rain is nothing to me, and frequent lightning blasts are to be expected in America. But combine the two, flood the hotel grounds, send an emergency warning to my phone and throw in a city alarm siren, and I FREAK OUT!!! I was filming it on my camera so you can experience this event in its full glory next time you see me.

It's gotten really hot again, and I'm tired after the panicking. Goodnight.
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Comments

Bernie
2015-08-19

A great send off !! Well done Mary!

Romy
2015-08-21

You're leaving ALREADY?????
Clearly I didn't catch up with you.
Maybe next week?
Anyway, I'm glad you really didn't see a tornado.

2025-02-11

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