water water water

it's storming in chattanooga right now. about ten minutes after i got to work, i heard the loudest and most sudden crack of thunder i've ever heard in my life! i called chris to see if he heard it across the valley. he didn't. i joked that it sounded like it had struck right outside my window b/c it was so loud. a few minutes later, someone walked by my office and i heard them say something like "where did it strike?!" it took a few minutes for it to sink in for me, and when i stuck my head outside, half of the student body was gathered around a tree in the quad! it HAD struck outside my window!! i walked up to the tree and was amazed at the split down the side. it looks like someone took a razor and shaved off a 2 inch by 20 foot strip with a tiny little split running the entire length! crazy!!! one of the students said he was standing about 10 feet away when it happened and that it was bright red. shoot! now it's just raining, but i hear more thunder coming...look out!


in more water news, i bought a ski jacket from landsend a few months ago and have really enjoyed having a warm, waterproof jacket that fits me. my old one was a large or something - who knows why i bought it so big. so anyway, about a week ago i wore it in some relatively heavy rain and discovered that it was NOT waterproof. the material had, in fact, absorbed the water quite beautifully. EGADS! it's not that i really need my ski coat to be waterproof, b/c i don't necessarily roll around in the snow, but my goal is to have my ski coat double as a rain coat so i don't have to have two coats. i'm like that. so i called landsend to see if i could return it. lo and behold! they have a policy where you can return anything, at anytime, for any reason. glory! so i got virtually the exact same jacket except it's waterPROOF. it came in the mail yesterday and is pictured to your left, and i got in the shower with it. i stood in there for about 5 minutes turning and making sure it had plenty of water exposure. chris thought i was crazy. crazy i may have been, but wet i was not!! hooray!!! and just for kicks, i did the same thing with my old one. it took approximately 3 seconds for it to become completely soaked through. hooray!!!!!

speaking of ski coats, we're going to need ours in THIRTEEN DAYS!!!!!! two weeks from this very moment, chris and i will be shredding up some slopes in a major way!! but we'll be paying about $150 more than we should for a rental car. *sigh* i have panic attacks when i drive through snow (see previous post regarding my colossal wreck), and chris is 23. drivers under 25 have to pay $25 PER DAY to be listed as a driver. dadgumit. i don't know what to do. now i'm wondering if we should just take the bus and not have a rental. SHOOT! but as my mom told me yesterday, i'm sure there are plenty of people in the world who wish they had that problem. [sarcasm]yes, woe is me, i'm having difficulty in planning my ski trip. *sigh* life IS hard, afterall!!! [/sarcasm]