Oklahoma...

Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains...

Well folks, we here in the "greater" OKC area (har har) had the first newsworthy storm of the season. I'll set the stage. My first ever Oklahoma "duck and cover" tornado event was quite the exciting one (almost as exciting as the time that I actually saw a tornado touch ground a mile north of my school in 6th grade).

Anyway, this evening, I was invited to a fundraising dinner for 4HIM ministries (a mission organization that helps train and send medical and building mission trips to almost 70 countries). Grant Johnston, meteorologist from NewsChannel4 was the MC. About halfway through the evening, we're told that it's a good thing we had Grant with us this evening because a tornado had been spotted in yukon (about 10 miles west and south of us) and that this major storm was heading east. We were told that we would need to stay here unless we could make it home in under 5 minutes or lived to the north, otherwise we'd need to stay and take shelter in the hotel's storm shelter. We were also asked to stay out of the halls of the hotel because the large plate glass windows could shatter if high winds or hail became a problem. So, everyone takes a quick peek out the window and sees that the sky has indeed turned that scary shade of green that means a storm is a-brewin'. At that point, an announcement asking all hotel guests to evacuate their rooms comes on over the loudspeaker, including "THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Great. So, anyway, we go into the storm shelter and wait for about 30 minutes before the storm passes while I call Jamie and she tells me not to die. :) Luckily, no tornado touched down near the hotel and everyone was safe, but it was quite the adventure while it was going on.

Welcome to Oklahoma, Hannah

Now to the more random part...

1. As it nears summer, my schedule is picking up immensly. Spring and Summer are the busy seasons for me, so I'm in the process of gearing up and getting prepared for the various trips.

2.Other things that have been happening? Well, lots. I met the former youthworker from LifeChurch (a mega church in the area) who gave me lots of good advice and suprisingly, wasn't concerned about the numbers, more that the youth in any group felt connected to each other and to Christ. He encouraged me and told me that I was doing a good job. Yay! I left our meeting feeling full... He gave me lots to think on and pray about and do.

3. In the past couple days, I've been thinking a lot about standards and singleness. I can't decide if I'm overly picky, or just uncompromising in my standards... Is either of them a bad thing? I also wonder if I am "profoundly and irreversibly screwed up" and am doomed to be a relational fool the rest of my life. I certainly hope not :).

4. I think the lovely Spode is quite possibly the funniest person I have ever met. Thank goodness for her wisdom, and her man-thinking brain or I would be sorely lost without her.

5. In all of this, I see myself growing up, which is terrifying and exciting all at the same time, yet I wonder when everything will all just fall into place. It just seems like these early-20's (almost mid-20's for Jess) ;) are not a fun time for lots of people. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one, but it's frustrating because I worry that this "suck" as I call it doesn't have a foreseeable end. However, I do think there are lots of fun parts of the growing up and I'm not sure that I would go back to college, high school, or junior high (yick yick yick). So, it can only get better from here.