Overcommitted

Queen's Under Pressure is probably stuck in your head now.  You're welcome for that little bit of 80s in your life.  I promise, it's relevant.

Back in the spring, I was so homesick.  I loved my job and the work I was doing but I was so desperate for home.  I wanted the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  I wanted cupcakes from the Red Velvet Cupcakery.  I wanted to get on the Metro and go to any museum or monument my little heart desired when I needed to just escape.  Most of all, I wanted to spend time with people that already knew the idiosyncrasies of my personality.  I didn't want to have to explain that you have to text me nasty things after the first time I tell you I'm running late because I'm actually just on my couch watching TV.  I didn't want to explain that sometimes I will wear my pajamas in public to "go to Wal-Mart" and end up going to 14 other places, perhaps even your house (and btw, I'm sorry I'm not sorry). 

But as summer and my one-year Atlanta anniversary approached, these feelings started to wane.  I made many more friends and strengthened the friendships I already had.  I joined the Junior League of Atlanta.  I took on more responsibilities at work.  I continued and even increased various church commitments with some amazing women.  I moved to an area that was less urban and more like the trees and green I loved in Virginia. 

As summer faded to fall (love country music, much?), somehow my schedule become overflowing.  I got promoted at work (OMG!) so there have been longer hours.  Church stuff is in full swing again.  JLA provisional members are required to perform a certain number of things to become a full member.  Then there have been my DC commitments that I've been traveling for...my Dad's birthday, a friend from college's wedding, a BFF's baby shower.  (Three weekends this month for those of you counting) On top of all of that, fall is when I have my physical and dentist and other miscellaneous appointments.  Am I coming or going?!

No, but for realsies, I can't figure out what day it is or how many bags (gym, lunch, laptop, purse, after-work activities) I need that day or what I need for travel that weekend.  As a result, some (read: all) things have suffered.  I've been the black hole of texting, emailing, and voicemails (I'm sorry!).  I've gotten to work late every day this week.  Ok, to be fair...today I was late because I stopped for coffee.  I have approximately one container of hummus and a Mexican Coca-Cola in my fridge.  I am only getting to the gym once a week instead of three.  You have to step over mail, a suitcase, a carry-on, and two bags from Target to get into my apartment.  My cat is sad.  That last one might be a lie....still with me?

So September was officially the month of too many commitments.  October?  That might be the month of sitting on my couch.

Happy (Belated) Birthday Laurel!!

Many of my favorite people are having a birthday this week!  But of all these favorites, only Laurel has tolerated my nonsense since 1999.  This nonsense may or may not have included marching band, begging for her to braid my hair on a moving bus (why did she always say yes?!), math class, boy drama, vacations with my crazy family, more boy drama, taking shots until someone pukes, road trips, way too much boy drama, and even bingo!  Laurel, you're awesome and so I'd like to publicly wish you a happy birthday since I can't be in Maryland to celebrate!!! 

I tried to find some embarassing pictures of us from "back in the day" --- remember mulch sales in high school?!  we were literally selling dirt.  oh, memories. --- but it was during B.C.P. (before camera phones) so I don't have electronic copies unless I want to go through old scrapbooks and take pictures with my iPhone.  Luckily for everyone, I was more focused on getting Starbucks this morning instead of reliving high school (read: crying).

One Year in Atlanta (part 2)

Shortly before I moved to Atlanta, I had the following conversation:

"I'm moving to Atlanta"

"Really?  Why?"

"I took this great new job!"

"Have you ever been to Atlanta?"

"I've flown through the airport..that counts!"

I honestly had no idea what to expect.  Ok, that's a total lie.  This is what I expected:

source:  http://www.movies-wallpapers.net/Movies/Atl/Atl-12.jpg 

Luckily for me, Atlanta offered more than just it's name to this (terrible) movie.

One Year in Atlanta (part 1)

Source: http://banglesandcrow.typepad.com/

It has been approximately one year and six weeks since I arrived in Atlanta with my brother ready (and scared) to take on Hot-lanta!  It was my first big move away from my friends and family.  To give you some perspective, before I moved in 11th grade I had gone to school with the same group of kids since nursery school.  While most of my friends went to schools far from home, I went to college about 20 minutes from my mom.  Then after college I moved within an hour of my dad's home.  While I thought I was *really* independent, I got a reckoning within about 2 days of my brother waving me goodbye as he got on a plane and left.  But enough of the sentimental talk....lemme give you the 4-1-1 (ha-ha, aren't I hilarious) on the last year of my life:

Moving!

With the exception of my final walkthrough at my old place, I am officially moved!

The moving itself went a lot smoother than I expected.  This is my fourth move since graduating college and my first move since making the trek from Virginia last year.  Using a freight service for a long distance move really changes your perspective on moving.  Before last year, I always just used the "anything goes" method of packing.  "Just throw it in the back seat!"  "Don't wrap those pictures!"  "A laundry basket and trash bag ARE acceptable packing materials!"  When you have to use a freight service (like an Atlas or a Delta Van Lines), EVERYTHING has to be packed in boxes or they won't take it.  When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING -- including dirty clothes!  If it's not wrapped correctly, then they will charge you extra to crate it or they simply won't take it. Originally I had the "oh I'll just take it in the car" mentality but quickly realized that my car was too small for, um, basically anything.  Unless you're moving from a mansion, you have to share the tractor trailer with other people's stuff, so the moving company will tag it and then you hope it gets unloaded at your house (and not someone elses).  Fortunately I grew up in a small (slightly redneck) town in Maryland, so I put neon duct tape on every single box so that there was no mistaking my stuff.  Instead of hoping that I had made enough friends to help me move, I hired movers but I may have gotten over-zealous in this year's packing.

What resulted was a minor freak-out when I got to the new place and couldn't even see through the mountains of boxes.  My new place is a few square feet smaller but with a much different layout so there was a lot of "OMG WHAT DID I DO?!  ITS TOO SMALL!".  I unpacked the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom within the first 24 hours and then realized that it wasn't as small as I thought (and I'd be ok).

With all of my IKEA furniture, I figured I'd have a few fallen soldiers but I (surprisingly) had none!  The only hiccup I had throughout the entire process was with the furry one.  She has a new trick of opening cabinet doors from the front.  Unfortunately she hasn't figured out how to prop them open or open them from the back so she sometimes gets stuck.  On moving day, she got stuck in a bathroom cabinet for EIGHT hours at the old place.  Whoops.  Don't worry.  She recovered quickly with lots of treats.

I had a pretty strict budget for this year's move and I stuck pretty closely to it for all the major things.  I always forget though how much the little things add up.  For instance, you have to tip the movers (usually in cash and at a per person rate).  Also there's the household things like curtains.  Usually curtains are the last thing I buy but my new blinds are flimsy (read: see through) so they jumped to the top of the list.

All in all, I think the move was a success.  My new place has much more a 'neighborhood' feel and it's certainly quieter.  But that's to be expected when there isn't a freight train 500 feet from your back door.

Friday Favorites

Can I double plagiarize?  It's my blog so yes!  I stole Shannon's Friday Favorites...

I recently moved --- that's a whole separate post --- and I was so impressed by southern hospitality!

Seriously I talked about moving enough that everyone in the entire southeast knew.  Most of you reading this are probably in the mid-Atlantic region of the US and thus make up any excuse possible not to help someone move.  In fact, you've probably spent most of this past spring with your phone off for this very reason.  Remember The Oatmeal's comic about it?  It's funny because it's true!  But I can't even tell you how many people texted, called, and offered to help me from everything from packing to disassembling to transport and moving to reassembling and even rearranging furniture.  I just figured everyone was being nice pre-move but then people called and texted the day of and after!  Southern hospitality is real, ya'll.

Like I noted in my last blog post, I've been a little technology challenged recently.  In addition to these woes, I've been sick of all my standard wallpapers for my iPhone.  First world problem, much?  Luckily, the app Paper'd provides me with a little dose of modesty for the day AND provides both a matching lock/home screen:

People who don't know how their Facebook privacy settings work and allow me to see their entire life without being friends with them.  No, but for real.  This wasted like an hour of my day earlier this week.  For those of you who do not wish to be stalked by the bored and creepy --- (or worse, get robbed like one person who posted pictures of cash) --- Do yourself a favor and read this.

Last but not least is SUMMER!  I am so happy that summer is OFFICIALLY here.  Bring on the BBQ, baseball, beer, and FUN here in Atlanta:

Technology Fails Me.

Not me.  I prefer to use the remote control.  JK JK.

It's been one of those weeks months with me and technology.  Of course this happens as I am in process of moving so I can't respond to the moving company's emails, look up how to register my car in a new county, or post witty commentary on the move to Facebook.  In no specific order, here is a list of May/June's technology fails:

DVR - My DVR and TV have played nicely for almost an entire year without a problem.  Sometime in May, they decided that they no longer like each other.  Anytime I try to watch anything in HD (including on demand and recorded shows), the DVR box flickers with the "DVI" error and the TV adjusts resolution.  Some days I can't even get through a full episode of 16 and Pregnant without this occuring but other days it's flawless.  Maybe the DVR is sick of all the crap that I watch?

Dell Laptop - I was a sophomore/junior in college when laptops started becoming mandatory for students.  At the time, they told us to expect the life of a laptop to be about 2 years (if you were lucky).  I have owned my current personal laptop for approximately 4 years this fall.  It was a birthday gift to me from my boyfriend at the time and I was so touched that someone would spend so much money on a gift for me that I've taken extra good care of it.  I have never spilled anything on it.  I have never dropped it.  Except for the occasional Starbucks trip, it has stayed in my apartment mostly.  Over the last year, it's started having problems.  First the battery stopped holding a charge.  Then I started getting a lot of "disk checking" when I started up.  Now it's overheating.  I can use it for approximately a half hour at a time before it starts a shutdown cycle.  You call it inconvenient.  I call it effective time management.

iPhone - I went to a information security training last week and now I'm convinced that my iPhone has been hacked.  Symptoms?  Sporatic alert tones.  Dropped calls.  Failure to send/receive text messages.  Drained battery while I'm not using it.  When I shared this with Matthew, he made the same smirking noise that he makes when I inform him that I think I have diabetes/shingles/malaria and told me that it's more probable that I've downloaded a buggy app.  He does know my affinity for free apps.  (My current favorite is "Paper'd").

Work Voicemail - Can someone please explain to me how I never ever receive voicemail messages and the week that I receive THREE very important ones is the week that my voicemail stops working.  Dial number.  "Welcome, Megan!  Please enter your password."  Enter passcode.  "Please hold."  Busy signal.  Hang up.  Dial number again.  "Welcome, Megan!  Please enter your password."  Enter previous passcode.  "This is not your password.  Please enter password."  Rinse, repeat.  Luckily, this was easily fixed from FIVE help desk communications.  Problem?  My passcode started with a zero.  Why did the system even let me change it to that if it couldn't handle it?!

Random work software - There is one piece of software in particular that I have not mastered.  Things I've done just this past week that required outside support to resolve?  Locked myself out of it.  Submitted a time sheet for the wrong date and couldn't delete it.  Pretty much the only thing I have been consistent with is the string of expletives that I say while I'm using it. 

Given my major in college and work experience, I feel like a mechanic who has a problem with every car they own.  This list doesn't even include the random other things (like my conference call number at the office, my pharmacy rewards, an outlet in my bedroom) that aren't working.

Tuesday RAGE is back

Dear Leasing Agents and Landlords of Atlanta,

After spending the last two weeks visiting 17 apartment complexes and scouring Craigslist ads, I feel the need to enlighten you:

1.  If there is a freight train that passes within 20 feet of your apartment complex that blows an airhorn all night, disclosure is key.  I appreciate you hiding things like mold or bed bugs from me as I may or may not be affected but a freight train that blows an air horn once an hour?  Not so easily hidden, my friends.

2.  If Google reviews and apartmentratings.com both say that you have a bug problem, then maybe you should at least make sure your model apartment has been sprayed.  Moreover if I say "hey there's a cockroach on the wall back there", please don't respond with "are you sure that's a cockroach?"

3.  No pictures of your property?  Or worse yet, pictures of your property in winter?  Hey friends, it did not snow in Atlanta this past winter.  You do the math on the age of THAT picture.

4.  First and last month's rent?!  Are you serious?  No one's doing that anymore.  Either you're trying to make a large profit or support a drug problem.

5.  Be prepared for questions about crime and demographics.  You may think that "it backs up against a wooded state park" sounds great but all I hear is "and then the serial killers can attack you and retreat back into the woods of the state park."

6.  If I comment to you about things I don't like about the property, don't try to give me a workaround.  For instance --- "hey I can see right onto that neighbor's balcony from mine.  I could basically spit on him."  An appropriate response to this is not "yeah you can just put up a bamboo curtain."  For what?  So we can play peek-a-boo?

7.  Don't play car salesman on me.  I want to know the bottom line of what I have to give you in a check each month.  Don't tell me that the rent is "really low" and then tack on fees for trash and sewer and water and the key fob and your latest raise.  Tell me what how much I need to write a check for at the end of each month.  Period.

8.  I know that your little sales training probably told you that it's easier to make a close face-to-face.  However if I email you asking about a specific apartment that is available on your website, it's because I want to know  if it's actually available and in my price range.  If you're going to tell me to "come in and sit down" then why bother having an email address at all?

9.  Offering me a Diet Coke?  Nice touch.

Until next time,

Friday Favorites

Internet, I hate to say it but I was actually pretty boring this week.  Does boring mean that I'm becoming a real grown-up?  I hope not --- maybe I need to introduce some binge drinking into my life just to ensure that doesn't happen.  My days were busy and filled with work and my evenings were filled with the continuing search for apartments.  Whenever I needed a laugh, this VT-themed website served its purpose:

On Saturday I have the great privilege of presenting to the local Systers Meetup about IT Audit and why it's important, how I got into it (minus the compensation part), and how it affects what you do (do you like online banking, for instance?).  Systers is such a great email community of women in computing sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.  I've been a member since 2007 when I attended the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing as part of the Association for Women in Computing at Virginia Tech.  In my Computer Science graduating class of 99 students, I was one of 4 women.  I was the only woman in many of my classes and I expected the workforce to look like that too.  I can't describe how shocked I was at GHC to see thousands of women and the great things they were accomplishing.  The conference's namesake, Grace Hopper, was a brilliant woman with a hilarious personality:

Callie has been quite vocal lately...maybe she is angry that she's not getting enough attention on my blog?  Actually it's probably because I'm not paying enough attention to her in real life.  Like a true parent, I decided just to buy her affection.  She is enjoying this contraption that I purchased for almost half off and is as tall as me!  It's been keeping her quiet and also from sleeping on my furniture so I'm enjoying it too!

Beating the Homesick Blues: Thanks!

I am overwhelmed by the amount of support I have gotten in the last few days from friends, family, and people that I didn't even know read my blog!  I have a bit of a hard time reaching out for help sometimes and I can't express my gratitude to those of you that texted, Facebook messaged, called, emailed, and gave me hugs!  I just hope that I meet someone struggling with homesickness some day and can pay it forward.

Beating the Homesickness Blues: First Holiday

If you've spent any time talking to me, texting me, emailing me, or even looking at my Facebook status, then you would know that I've been struggling with the big H.  That's homesickness, not hemorrhoids, Internet.  I'm aware that pretty much everyone from my life (DC Metro and Atlanta) is tired of listening to me complain about it and one brave soul today challenged me asking what exactly it was that I was so homesick over.  (Note if this isn't funny enough for you, don't click the line break and read on.  I'll post a regularly scheduled rage entry tomorrow for your entertainment.)

Friday Favorites --- Tuesday Rage?

I missed 'Friday Favorites' last week so maybe that's why I felt so much rage on Monday (which has bled into Tuesday).  When I lived in Blacksburg, the local radio station had "Zach's Anger Diaries" and so I present to you today MY anger diaries:

On my way to work, there are a few traffic cops.  This is fairly new to me since they just let us give each other the finger and hit each other in Virginia.  There is one traffic cop at an undisclosed location where I need to make a right turn that acts like I'm going to plow through the intersection and hit him.  Seriously.  If I'm the first one in the turn lane, he will come over to the turn lane gesturing wildly like I'm the crazy one.  I drive a compact car.  I couldn't plow through that intersection even if I wanted to.  Also wouldn't I be accelerating if I was going to keep going instead of obviously slowing down?  There's no need for the wild dramatics, APD.  I promise you that I am slowing to a stop.

Yes, that is an elliptical trainer and no, I'm not raging because I hate using it.  It's actually my favorite piece of gym equipment other than the floor mats (I do love to sit).  However it has a touchscreen (as you can see in the picture above).  Riddle me this, internet, why would you put the magazine/book ledge in a place where it would lean against the touchscreen and press against the various controls?  I can't tell you how many times I am trying to read something only to discover that my incline is at 100%.  I don't wear my glasses in the gym so I can't read the closed captioning on the TVs and lately I've had to resort to my old stand-by of judging people.

The Georgia Aquarium.  I have nothing against the Georgia Aquarium.  My personal preference is for the National Aquarium in Baltimore but that is partially due to the many fond memories from my childhood there.  The issue that I have with the Georgia Aquarium is that it makes for a crappy adult date, despite what local ATL bloggers are saying.  There's no way of coming out of the aquarium without looking like you want kids tomorrow or you never want kids.  This weekend I'm pretty sure I came across like I was the witch in Hansel and Gretel.  There were kids everywhere --- ones bigger than me, ones smaller than me, and my archnemesis -- kids in strollers.  I have enough friends with kids (hell, I even baby-sit) to know how convenient a stroller is but you can't have 700 of them in an enclosed area without a traffic jam.  I also don't appreciate junior kicking me as you roll past me and/or hit me with the stroller.  Here's another hint for all you parents out there --- just because you tap me with your stroller -- I'M NOT MOVING.  It's a kid, not a disabled adult.  Wheelchairs, service animals -- sure I'll move.  Strollers, especially JOGGING strollers in an aquarium??  Think again.

So, yeah, who wants to keep reading my blog now?  ;-) 

Friday Favorites!

I can't believe it's just now Friday.  I was ready for this Friday about two days ago.  Quick recap of the week: long work days catching up from when I was out with strep throat, undisclosed drama, and a kidney infection.  Evidently kidney infections can follow strep throat.  Seriously?  There was a phrase I read on a blog recently that really speaks to me: We are THAT family.  Thing after thing after thing, right?  My body is not happy with some of the changes that I've been making in diet/exercise/stress management and I need to push through it to figure out how to make me healthy and whole again.

However here are my Friday Favorites that helped me get through this week:

Crunchy curls that are made from Lentils and potatos....I am so addicted and you get so many more a serving size than chips:

Favorite video for the week??  Who loves you baby?  OBAMA!  An infinite playlist of Obama's responses to people's I LOVE YOU shouts...which are actually "I LOVE YOU BACK".  If this doesn't make your day, I'm not sure what will.

Last but not least is my new bag.  I've all over the place during the day....work, lunch, gym, church some nights, VT events and even finding the time to hang out with or make friends.  I was carrying like 69 bags around everywhere and half the time couldn't find what I needed from place to place (oh i want to put my hair back -- oh thats in my gym bag.  gosh its cold i need a sweater -- oh thats on my desk at work).  I was turned onto the company Thirty-One right before I left DC and it's much bigger down south.  Probably because Southerns really love monogramming and I think it's starting to rub off on me.  Here is a picture of the bag style that I got but with my monogram in pale pink:

 Keep me in your thoughts and prayers the next few days that I'll get healthy and stay that way.

I'm not on a singles dating website damnit!

As evidenced in a previous post, I can be pretty creepy.  Therefore it shouldn't surprise anyone that I have a statcounter at the bottom of my blog [scroll down and see the pink thing -- got you!] and it shows me where traffic is coming from.  For most of you, it's Facebook or direct links that I spam you.  However tt appears that I'm getting a fair amount of traffic from a profile on a dating site that I am definitely NOT part of, which leads me to believe that someone is trying to use my site to pick up dudes/chicks/trannys. 

First of all, thank you for reading my site but tell that jerk to write their own funny shit!

Daylight Savings Time Wins Again.

Daylight Savings Time - 2 Megan - 0

That's right Internet.  I am 2 for 2 on days late to work after Daylight Savings Time.  The cycle has been going like this:

11pm - I really should go to bed now.  OMFG - Is that Jersey Shore on again?  Well I'll just watch it in bed and probably fall asleep.  [why was JERZATHON on this weekend?  Did MTV want the world to stop?] 

12pm - Oh that Snooki.  She's a riot.  I probably should make a better attempt to fall asleep.  Oh crap, what did the cat get into?  It sounds like she just broke something.  [side note, it was my ceramic crab that she broke and now I'll be supergluing tiny crab legs back on.  stop wondering why I own a ceramic crab and start wondering why you don't.]

1am - Usually asleep....or enjoying a snack.

6am - Alarm clock goes off.  Oh man it's so dark.  It's really like 5am "my time" [my birthday is when we 'fall back' and shall henceforth be called 'my time'].  I'll just hit snooze.

7:30am - OH NO!  I didn't hit snooze.  I turned my clock off.  Time to do the mad-shower-brush-teeth-make-lunch run out the door.  Rinse and repeat.

In other news, I feel a lot better and am so appreciative of all of my Atlanta friends that checked on me.  Being sick in a new city away from family and friends really sucks but my new friends really came through on offering to do things for me and help me out.  I need to work on being more like them...this is more like how I would be:

Friday Favorites

Hello, new visitors!  Since I posted my blog on a private Facebook status, I've had 87 unique visitors.  I wasn't expecting that many people to read my little corner of the internet or to respond via my Facebook status or comments so thank you thank you!

As you can tell by the timeliness of this update, this week didn't really end as expected.  I've been in bed the last two days with strep throat.  I don't even know how I still get strep throat?!  Seriously, what ADULT gets strep throat?  Evidently, this one.

My first favorite of this week is Passport Day in the USA:

For those of us who may or may not need to obtain a passport and who may or may not have been too lazy to make an appointment with their local passport agency (also known as a post office), this is great!  Today only you can go to your local passport agency and apply for a passport without an appointment.  I arrived a half hour early and there was already a long line.  Luckily, my loud mouth and crappy attitude helped me jump the line and this Atlanta girl may or may not be able to travel internationally in 4-6 weeks!

My next favorite of this week is Curtis Jay:

Curtis was in my stand-up comedy class at Relapse Theater in Atlanta.  In our stand-up graduation performance (above), he talks about how he will not kick anyone's ass for any white friend of his.  He totally stole this from a conversation we had where I asked him if I could threaten people and he could be my hitman.  He was not cool with this and it ended up in his routine.  It's way funnier coming from him than me and so I'll let him steal it.

Curtis has been pretty successful in the Open Mic circuit around Atlanta and has been pushing gently nudging me to continue performing beyond our class.  He knows that I've been a little reluctant and so he invited me this week to a more low-key Open Mic this coming Tuesday.  I'll keep you updated Internet on how it goes.

Hope everyone has a great weekend --- mine so far has consisted of Jersey Shore and my Virginia Tech pillow pet (a bonus favorite):

Stay happy and healthy!  

Auditing my Facebook friends

An auditor by day and a self-proclaimed IT nerd by night, I sometimes find that the two bleed into each other.  Case in point --- Facebook.  Say what?  I know Internet, stay with me here.

One concept in IT auditing to ensure that people don't have access after being fired or transferring jobs is the periodic access review.  Basically you want to make sure that someone is looking at all the users that have access to a particular system or software on some type of regular basis.  As an auditor, we prefer that this "someone" is actually someone that is somewhat related to the system and that this "regular basis" is at least quarterly and that they will take action if they find "someone" who should not have access. 

I've had Facebook since it was introduced for Virginia Tech in 2004 so I've had *many* friends over the years that have served various purposes (please help me with my homework was a big one).  I like to do a periodic access review now and again to get rid of people with annoying status updates, people that I have no real connection to, or just people that I don't think add any value to my life (also known as people that I stalk for no good reason but entertainment).  Recently, I started using the tool Friends List Tracker.  Oh.My.Gosh.  Trip down memory lane?  This was more trip down memory back alley.

This list tells you the changes in your friends list daily but it also gives you a list of people you may have once been friends with -- mine is 31 pages long.  THIRTY ONE PAGES.  Some of these pages contain people from high school that I'm sure I was friends with when Facebook first launched or people from college that I had class with at one point.  However some of these people are people I don't even recognize or haven't thought about in years.  This is further proof that I will pretty much friend anyone.  Seriously, how was I friends with people who I can't readily recall?!!  I know some of these were women whose names have changed but not all of them.

But as much as I was appalled by the number of people that I've deleted from my digital life, I was also slightly happy that I had been purging my friends list so frequently....am I that big of a nerd?  Let the button below speak for itself...

Tornado Weekend

Normally when I say a tornado came through my weekend, I'm referring to a crazy schedule or people coming to visit.  In this case, there were ACTUAL TORNADOS in Georgia.  OMG WTF BBQ LOL. 

Luckily, I could count on the local news to tell me everything I needed to know about tornados in Atlanta:

1.  You need to leave your mobile home during a tornado warning because it's, you know, mobile. 

2.  The news anchors would like you to send pictures until you send one of the funnel and then they have "trained paid professionals" for that.  In this case, they actually just want pictures of your ill-fated home and your crying children.

3.  You should remember the acronym DUCK: Downstairs, Underneath something, Cover yourself, Keep in shelter until the storm has passed.  However the news team does not want you to miss a minute of their broadcast so they will stream the broadcast for you to watch on your laptop in your shelter --- unless you lose power and internet -- then you should probably go take pictures of the damage to send in.

In all seriousness, it was a pretty scary night for me since we didn't really have tornados in Virginia.  I spent most of the night running around my apartment frantically texting my friends asking if I should be hiding in the bathroom with my cat (answer: no because I heard no sirens).  Also what happened to animals being able to sense natural disasters?  She slept in the window the entire time.  However I thought cats were also supposed to chase bugs and she seems quite content to watch them for about 2 minutes before walking away.  Happy Monday!