good one, 'ma

   At first I had my doubts, but now I am about 99% sure Mother Nature doesn’t like it when I leave my Real Home for my College Home.

   When I make the trip home for whatever reason, I always have it scheduled out: when I head home, how many days I’ll be there, what day I’ll leave, what time I’ll leave, etc. I tend to stick fairly closely to this schedule because unfortunately I have a job and they kind of like to know what days I work.

   My freshman year, I noticed the weather would somehow take a turn for the worst on the day I had planned to head back to school. More snow than was expected, icy winds, ridiculous amount of rain, and whatever else Montana can throw at you. I’d always tough it out, though, and didn’t think much of it.

   Well, as the years have gone by the weather has progressively gotten worse each and every time I attempt to leave home. For example, in March I had spent a week at home for Spring Break. The weather wasn’t the least bit “Spring-y” by the way. But I had my fingers crossed that the day I chose to head back to College Home would be a beautiful, clear, sunny day.

   It was not.

   Rather I was thrown into something that resembled this:

   Seriously. About an hour away from home, the sky turned completely grey and little precious snowflakes began falling. Not so horrible, I thought. But as I reached the stretch of my trek I lovingly refer to as the Corridor of Death and Torture (CDT), everything went to…crap. I couldn’t see more than twenty feet in front of me, only one lane of the Interstate was drivable, the speed max was probably 22 mph, semi-trucks were passing me left and right, cars were going off the road every mile or so, AND it was snowing flakes the size of my eyeball. So much fun!!!&(*&#(*(@! I turned down my music and gripped my steering wheel so tight that my knuckles were numb. Of course I was alone and of course there was barely any cell signal. I dedicated myself, though, and followed this one fairly calm semi for probably an hour and a half. The situation kept getting worse the deeper we drove into the CDT and I’m pretty sure I was on the verge of insanity. I began singing weird songs to myself like “La la la please don’t let me diiiieee! La la la I’m really scared and cold and helpless and scaaared please oh please la la laaaaa! I HATE DRIVING LA. LA. LA.” Kind of glad now that no one was there to hear/see that. Finally the storm moved along and I could see a little farther and drive a little faster. My semi-truck buddy, whom I referred to as Joe in one of my songs, left me in the dust and I was not happy. But slowly my speed crept back up to 65 and I was on my merry, shaky, nauseous, tired way! I told myself I was never going home again.

   

   Well here I am at home again. Today is the day I chose when planning this mini-vacation that I would head back to College Home. The weather hasn’t been too fabulous since I’ve been here, but nothing out-of-the-norm either. I got up early today to finish my laundry, pack most of my stuff, and relax before my scheduled departure time at 2:00pm only to be informed that there is a severe storm warning for thunderstorms, rain, and perhaps hail. Also, it should be occurring from about 2:00 – 6:00 which is the exact time I will be driving.

   Huh.

   So basically I have concluded that a) I’m supposed to live at home and b) Mother Nature thinks this is funny. Or Mother Nature thinks I need to develop my Montana driving skills. But since my college town is known for ridiculous weather patterns I’m leaning more toward the idea that she just has a sick sense of humor and probably finds my apprehension amusing. 

   Funny, real funny.