How the movie "Twister" saved my life. (And other rainy day musings)

When it comes down to it, everything I know about tornadoes, I learned from "Twister." When I was a kid I loved that movie. I could probably recite most of Helen Hunt's lines. I totally thought I wanted to be a storm chaser when I grew up.

Of course, I was a West Coast kid and really had no idea what severe weather was like. Sure, we had a lot of rain. Snow storms every once in awhile.

But hide in your basement waiting out a tornado warning. No way. We didn't even have a basement or any other sort of storm safe space.

Regardless of my countless viewings of "Twister," I'll be honest, I have no idea what to really do in a tornado. My storm survival skills are probably just as on par as my cooking skills (note, I haven't used my oven in over a year).

However, Week 12 brought with it a whirlwind (pun intended) of fun (sarcasm at its finest) and storm-sanity.

My first ever real tornado emergency.

I get it. This is all normal for most of America (You people are crazy) however, for this mild weather baby, these shit storms are f*ing insane. And down right scary.

I was driving down the road, doing my thing, trying to make it to my meeting when the sky literally turned black, hail and rain hammered into my car and visibility was quickly declining.

Now I've seen enough horror movies to know this could quite possibly mean the Apocalypse or the second coming of a Demon child.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

I kept driving.

I figured I would observe native Texans in their natural habitat and see how they responded to such conditions.

I quickly learned that there are 1 of 2 things that should be done. A) Exit the Freeway or B) Park under an overpass.

Completely freak out (which was my own coping method) was clearly not the correct choice. So I decided to follow suit.

By that time, all the overpasses were taken, so I ended up following a long line of cars to a random exit, and into a random mall parking structure. I still don't understand how that was safer, but they were all going there (maybe they were all visitors like me, who knows). Everyone just sort of waited it out.

Turns out, I ended up being just about a mile away from the Arlington tornado. Pretty darn crazy. Some of the footage of the Dallas area is intense. Flying semi trucks! All in all there were between 10-13 tornadoes that day alone.

As I was a tornado virgin, I did at least learn a few things. Such as:

1. If there is a mass exodus of vehicles off the road, chances are you should be following them. "Waiting it out" while still driving is not waiting it out. It's just plain stupid.

2. In the event of severe weather. Always. Always unplug your ipod and listen to the radio. Regardless of the fact that you can't stop singing along to Kelly Clarkson.

3. Very large hail is an indicator of a very bad storm. It is highly suggested that you do not try to videotape it with your phone.

4. Duck and cover is a transferable skill (useful in Earthquakes and apparently tornadoes).

5. One should try to be familiar with the Local Counties, as this is the main identification used in all the radio warnings. In the middle of a tornado is not the time to be google mapping your location.

6. If you find yourself in the midst of a tornado, it's okay to scream your head off. No one will judge.