Yesterday, I was able to take the time to pamper my face because we were in the midst of a very freaky storm system. (Weather reports were warning us of a derecho, which is super scary and strikes very quickly.) I doubted we would get the storm, as many others did, because it was quite sunny in the early part of the afternoon.

It suddenly got very dark around 3:30 PM, however, so I slapped on a mask and watched as a sudden torrent whipped through my street. My boyfriend told me that he was in his basement but that the storm had mostly passed for him, so I knew it wouldn’t last terribly long.

My biggest concern was the tornado warning. I have recurring nightmares about tornadoes, so while my curiosity as a scientist really wanted to see one, my fear of tornadoes made me want to curl up in fetal position in my basement. (Neither happened, because I am both a scaredy-cat and also a little proud. XD)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until I headed to campus. I left later than I wanted because I have to pay for daily parking and I figured if I got to the parking garage at midnight, I could pay for all of Friday. I got to the garage at 11:55 PM, so I waited in my car for 5 minutes before I went out to the meter machine.

… it wouldn’t let me pay for the day. It only gave me a 15-minute rate and an hourly rate. What. I started panicking a little because the whole point of me leaving late in the evening was so that I wouldn’t have to wake up at 7 AM to pay the meter. I was looking around for a number to call and maybe I accidentally hit the machine?

Because the next thing I know, the parking machine is sounding a car alarm at me, extremely loudly. I was freaked out like you don’t know. I just wanted to pay a parking fee and go to sleep, and now the machine was yelling at me from the roof. Luckily, it stopped about 30 seconds in, but it was really scary for me and I just kind of walked away dejectedly afterwards, knowing I’d have to wake up to pay for parking in the morning AND I was out late trying to avoid that anyway.

This morning when I woke up to pay the meter, I got up to the roof and I saw the transportation services truck going around my parking level. ZOMG I hustled to check that I didn’t already have a ticket and then I paid and shuffled away, staring down the transportation services truck as I did so…

Just thought I’d share. 😛