Monday, February 18, 2008

Holy panic attack

Yesterday started out like every Sunday before it, with the exception of spending the afternoon looking for the location of Darrell's new job. You know, so he wouldn't get lost trying to find it this morning. Before I get lost in the details of my panic attack (haha) I'll just do a super quick update on Darrell's job status. He was offered to work for the company that bought out William's Brothers. He decided to take that job, as he will keep the same pay, and insurance (my favorite thing about it!), but as this company is REALLY thriving, the benefits are awesome. However, the job requires a transfer to a city we've never been to, that is slightly far away. Hence the reason for this little trip to find it's location.

So now that I'm back on track, I'll bring you to a scene of us driving in our new minivan. (Yes, I've finally joined the club. Something I never thought I would do. I'm officially old. haha) It was a beautiful, but slightly cloudy day. As we were traveling into a part of GA that is known to have really bad storms (ten minutes from the border of Alabama...yikes...Major tornados and stormage coming from that mug!) the sky just kept getting darker and darker, and the wind had picked up quite a bit. It was nuts, but we kept driving until we found the place. Darrell wanted to stop in at the local Wally World, for a few bits of nothing important. By that time it had started to sprinkle. I didn't want to get the baby out, so I told Darrell just to run in. He was adiment about us going in with him, though, and thank God for that! We were in there for about five minutes when it had become obvious that it was raining fiercely out. An announcement was made that "we" were under a tornado warning. Nobody seemed alarmed so I thought this was something that those folks must have been used to. My heart was going a little nuts, but I pretended to not be scared. We ventured up to the front where there were gobs of people standing around talking about seeing a tornado. Everyone was watching the front doors (from a distance). I asked Darrell what he wanted to do, as we were finished shopping. He thought, just as I did, that we should hang out for a little while longer. We wondered over to check out some Febreze when it began raining even harder. It sounded like the roof was going to either cave in, or blow away. People began screaming so loudly, that I thought someone had been hurt. People were running frantically past either side of the aisle we were on. I couldn't control my cool any longer. Looked like a scene from a movie. Total chaos. I had begun to panic a little at that point, but only because of the people. An announcement came over asking everyone to get to the back of the store as soon as possible, but without running. TOO LATE FOR THAT! It was NUTS as we watched as people were running and shoving past one another! For some reason, a lot of people were running towards the auto section, and I was thinking, "What the heck are those folks doing? If Walmart gets hit with a tornado I wouldn't want to be in the auto section." Darrell and I went to the bedding section, which was surprisingly totally empty at the time. Soon after we found a nice cozy spot to plant ourselves into, the area around us and for as far as I could see, for that matter, was covered with people. Ugh. I don't do well in crowds that are tightly bound. I never have. It bugs me. So, I had myself a little panic attack. I did well at hiding it, although Darrell must have known. I talked to God, and sang a little song of praise, and kept myself occupied with Ella. While we were there, an occasional message would come over the intercom, as well as a message from the weather emergency system. We were told that there were five tornados in the area. I can't remember how many of those that they said were in the air, and how many were on the ground. I know that the ratio was 3/2. The scene, which didn't help with my nutso panic attack, was just crazy. People were crying (mostly teens, and lots of babies/toddlers.) There had to have been three hundred cell phones being used at the time. Panic was in each voice. Then, of course, there was my husband. >:0) To all who know him, probably know what I'm going to "say". My Darrell is the most laid back person I've ever met. He was so cool and calm. He was shopping in the little area that we were confined to. "Hey, didn't you say that you wanted to get another set of sheets?" I love that guy! Wish I could be more like him. He helped at distracting me from feeling like I was being smothered by the two or three hundred people that made their way to the back, not to mention the storm above our heads. Ella did so well, considering the length of time we were forced to remain back there. She played peek-a-boo with a few people who didn't even notice her doing so because they were on their cell phones or talking to their current neighbor and coming up with their own theories of what they thought was going on, etc., and then she pointed to her box of fruit snacks that were in the cart saying "Bite. See!" So, I popped that box open for her, which is so not like me, but it was an unusual sort of a day, so why not? Yes, I totally paid for that box of fruity snacks!

Once we were able to skidaddle from the back, and there again, the skidaddling part was total mayhem, (People are crazy. God love em.) we went back to the section with the Febreze. I found the same bottle that I had thrown back down onto the shelf earlier, grabbed it and headed for the cashiers. It was still ugly when we made our way out. The rain was horrible and relentless. Our new minivan was still in the same place we parked it. >:0) Actually, there was no damage to the area at all, from what we could see from the parking lot. Once we started driving, though, it was evident that there had been a tornado or two. I couldn't wait to get out of that particular city, but my super calm laid back worry free hubby wanted to stop for a bite to eat. Yeah. That's my Darrell. There was no way I was going to stay in that place, without putting up a little fight, and Darrell is never up for an argument so we headed back home. So thankful for the protection we were given, and for not having a total meltdown surrounded by strangers.

The alarm went off at 3:00 am. Darrell and I made our way out of bed, but barely. I got up to make him some sausage & bicuits to take with him on the road, as well as a lunch, while he got ready for work. Said a little prayer for his protection, and saw him to the door. Ugh. As dumb as I know that this sounds, I hate knowing that he's going back there. I mean, of course I know that the odds of that happening today are probably slim. That city is just kind of tainted to me, after being stuck in the bedding section of it's Walmart for an hour or so, yesterday.

Forgive my ramblings. I'm suffering lack of sleep, but I can't go back to sleep until I know he's there. Darrell gets really relaxed while on the road, and has a tendency of wanting to fall asleep while driving. Which, by the way, is why I woke up with him and packed him breakfast so that he could eat on the way up there...and hopefully not feel sleepy.

Yeah, okay. Pray for my sanity. I'm going bonkers. I know.

Still relishing in His goodness...



and going to bed (which means Darrell made it to work okay!)