Stupid Weather

I’m supposed to be going to a two-night scrapbooking retreat at a wonderful B&B/retreat center on Smith Lake in north-central Alabama today. I was supposed to leave 20 minutes ago.

But the weather is ominous.

Right now, skies are blue and the clouds are fluffy and my car has been packed for several hours. I have been dreaming about this retreat all week, and I have had all of my scrapbooking stuff packed up since Monday (!) to be prepared to go. I was SO EXCITED.

But the weather is ominous.

The city schools are closing early because of what’s coming. They’re telling people to stay off the roads and get home to their families, and to please take this seriously. The Weather Channel is talking lots and lots about tornado safety.

Because the weather is ominous. It’s unseasonably warm and VERY humid outside. Perfect tornado-brewing weather.

Friends of mine left this morning and are already there, probably elbow-deep in their photos and paper now. I’m jealous. I’m here, scrubbing caramel out of the carpet that Alice dropped this morning, telling Logic to stop barking at the cars that drive by, and changing the catboxes.

I called off the babysitter that I had scheduled to arrive at 1pm, because I didn’t think it was really fair to ask a 14-year-old girl to sit with two little kids in a strange house in the event that the sky turns green. She’d probably want to be home with HER mom, and my kids would probably want to be with THEIR mom.

So I’m here.

Like carrying an umbrella to ward off the rain, I fully expect this all to dissipate and turn into a non-event, and then I’ll be pissed that I missed the first night of the retreat. I will be getting up at the crack of dawn and driving down tomorrow, probably. Going so late means that I’ll get the LAST pick of a table, so I’ll probably spend a very uncomfortable day scrapping on a postage-stamp of a table, squished over in one corner.

Dammit.

Good thing I’m not bitter about it. Bitterness would just make it worse.

Stupid weather.