dateline: atlanta/cabbagetown
march 14, 2008
i was working late...
my phone was dead.
except for that, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
it rained hard around 9:30pm...i have a large window in my office and i watched the rain for a minute, it was nice.
the rain stopped and i left for home around 11pm.
i noticed a change in "atmosphere" as i approached cabbagetown, my dear neighborhood where i have lived for almost 10 years.
the streetlights were out, it was raining, there were limbs down in the street...um, is that an entire tree??
traffic jam on tye street?? what?? why are cars turning around??
wait, something feels weird.
my heart began to beat faster, i had to get home.
i see michael, my new neighbor who just moved into the house next door a few weeks earlier, walking with a candelabra...
he says "it's bad, but it's ok".
WHAT??
so many people in the street, carrying flashlights and candles...yet no one seems to be talking...
i made my way to my street, wanting to run before i even get out of the car.
where is my dog?
where is my son?
i walk up to a crowd of familiar faces...yet not so familiar as the shock was so fresh, the johnnie walker may have contributed to the look on their faces :) but
i know it just helped them cope!
because of these brilliant coping skills i could not get a coherent answer about WTF had happened.
my beautiful, zany friends were handing me their phones to call my kids because the kids had called ALL of them looking for me...
my phone was dead, remember?
this would have been a very different story if i could have been reached OR if i ever listened to the radio.
it just took such a long time to process the chaos...but OK, i've got it now...
there was a tornado...
a fucking tornado...
IN cabbagetown.
by morning's light...
