"Careful! Don't die!"

I'll say this, nothing interrupts studying for a history final like a tornado warning (that's the one where there's actually one in your area, for those of you who can't keep them straight). When you're on the fourth floor and suddenly realize a tornado is a mere twenty miles from your window, you don't waste any time moving to the first floor lounge.

Happily, that was the same idea everyone else on my floor had, so we called it a mini-house party. We made fun of the local weatherman's name (Thor Bensler, anyone?), laughed at the SA who showed up covered in mud (though he had a good point: "It'd be bad enough to be sucked up in a funnel fully clothed, let alone-" "GLICK!" "Sorry."), and made a pact that, if we weren't dead by 5:00 [the tornado was supposed to hit around 4:50], that we'd go to dinner. Then, there was the ongoing "Don't die!" anytime someone left the lounge and more Thor jokes ("Oh, I *bet* Thor knows!"). Things got a little quieter when the hail hit around 4:48, though then we started a countdown to 5:00 and livened things back up. I also bet the other dorms didn't have people cheer every time The Weather Channel mentioned Adair County and Kirksville ("Woo! We're famous!") or truly hope for "just a little bit" of the roof to blow off because, in the words of my SA, "I could do without some finals." If only.