My True Love

Those of you who are about to get excited, stop it. Because you're really about to go, "Aww, man...Laura's such a loser."

So, have I ever told you how much I love weather? I was just standing outside with my dad looking up at the sky for like ten minutes, checking on the progress of the clouds across the sky. The clouds were rather disorganized, so I didn't have high hopes for rain. That was maybe an hour ago. No rain since. I told Dad that I think I like weather so much because it's unpredictable (at least for those of us untrained non-meteorologist types) and I like the challenge of figuring out what it's going to do.

Y'all already know that I like to watch Twister when the weather is going crazy. I was really wishing that I had it with me to watch while the weather looked mad...but then the clouds wimped out and didn't do anything. It's probably a good idea that not much happened weather-wise; if it had, I might have been really sad that I couldn't watch my movie.

Weather that really did man up and do what it was supposed to do? A few weeks ago, Mom and Dad and I were in this little local store for an hour or something, and we didn't even realize that the clouds had gotten angry until we went back outside. We stood by the car for a moment, checking out the deep gray of the sky, when

sizzleCRAAAAAACKBAAAMMRUMBLErumblerumblerumble

and we all just stood there slack-jawed, realizing that that was the closest any of us had ever come to being struck by lightning. Seriously--we could hear the sizzle of the static electricity zipping across the air before we even got the sound of air molecules smacking into each other (at least I think that's what it was, but I'll admit that's one of my theories I pass off as fact). We don't think the bolt reached the ground; it struck just to our right, almost directly above us, so if it had touched the ground...let's just say we would have seen the evidence. Up close. It was AWESOME.

Now, my television's "power-on channel" is The Weather Channel. During the school year, I wake up with Al Roker and Stephanie Abrams and Mike Bettes (on whom I happen to have a pretty legitimate crush), and I hang out with Alexandra Steele and Jim Cantore (or whoever's subbing for him while he's off gallavanting) when I come home from work. And they totally redid their website (http://www.weather.com/), and I can't even finish this post without looking at it again--

--wow. That was fun.

Anyway, I think the thing I miss most about having a school year routine is being able to check out the weather all the time. I am so lazy during the summer, and I'm never doing much of anything that needs a heat or umbrella check. That means I miss out on the weather a whole lot.

So, dearest Weather, I miss you. I love you, I miss you, I want to be with you. I can't wait until I get to spend time with you again. See you soon, baby.

[Is that the post you were expecting? Have you said "Laura, you're such a loser" yet?]