Perspective

I have a long list of things I should be doing, but I am choosing to write this blog because that is what I want to do right now.  And darn it, that's what matters.

I just drove back from Madison to Tuscaloosa in Tropical Storm Lee.  It was terrifying.  I swear my life flashed before my eyes a couple times when I was driving 45 on the interstate blinded by the rain or when I was having to slam on my breaks to avoid accidents or obliviously law-breaking drivers without their lights on.

I haven't been this scared for my life since I was crammed in that closet with fifteen or so people on April 27.

And being scared for your life really puts things in perspective.  As a 22 year old (in four days), I don't often dwell on my own mortality.  I'm young, just starting graduate school, too busy with fall semester and football season to die.  Right?

Even after losing my grandma to cancer almost nine months ago, and even though I miss her every single day, death still isn't real to me.

But the truth is people my age die every day.  Freak accidents, diseases, natural disasters.  Our life can be taken from us without a moment's notice.

Just over a week ago, I went with friends to the Tuscaloosa Remembers memorial service honoring the lives taken by the tornado on April 27.  Dr. Witt, Coach Grant, and Coach Saban all spoke about the impact that day has had on our University and the entire community.

Something that Coach Saban said, in particular, stuck with me.  "Every day, we should appreciate the opportunity that we have to accomplish and affect something."  He told all the students at the service that we should be grateful to be alive and that we should be living our lives to the fullest, something that the six UA students killed by the tornado can no longer do.

We all really are so blessed, aren't we?  To have this opportunity to live.

I want to make the most of it.  I want to do things that make me happy.  I want to help others.  I don't want to do things because they are expected of me but because they are right.  I don't want to be complacent.  I want to explore and take chances every day.  I want to live for those who can't.

I watched an old movie called "Holiday" with my mom, grandpa, and uncles yesterday.  The movie, which was made in 1938, stars Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.  Grant's character has been working since he was ten years old and now wants to make just enough money so that he can take a long holiday... while he's still young enough to enjoy it.  Not a bad idea.  (Though perhaps a bit impractical during the Great Depression.)

I definitely don't want to put off happiness now so that I can have it later.  Today could be my last chance.  Or yours.

Think about it.

Playing Catch Up

None of you is less surprised than me that I have let this blog die over the course of the summer.  Me having too much free time leads to me watching entire seasons of shows rather than even feigning productivity.

But as I sit on my couch less than three hours before my graduate school orientation (I wrote this earlier today but am just now posting it as I steal Internet.), I have a sudden urge to write about everything that has happened in the past few months.  For your sake, I’ll just hit the highlights.

1.         I went to Alaska!  I could’ve sworn I wrote about this already, but I guess I’m losing my mind.  Scotty and I went on a business trip with our mom and got to experience Alaska’s natural beauty and delightfully cool weather for a week.  Fairbanks and Fort Greely, two of the places we stayed, were admittedly very boring.  But Denali was beautiful and made the entire trip more than worth it.

            I saw wolves and moose and bears, oh my! (Yes, I have made this joke before.  It’s still funny.)  And every way you turned was a view even more beautiful than the one before.  You could see those views anytime you wanted, too, because the sun never really set the whole time we were there.  I would absolutely go back to Alaska, but it would have to be in the summer again; this Alabama girl is not cut out for negative anything temperatures!

2.         I got my car back.  Amen and hallelujah, y’all.  I have not stopped thinking all summer about how lucky I was to not be injured or completely displaced by the tornado.  But it was torture not having my car for 9 weeks!  I went from enjoying total freedom my senior year of college to being immobile at my mom’s house most of the summer.  Not my idea of fun. 

Unfortunately, the shop did a pretty shoddy job on my car.  My (after market) back window was ridiculously warped; it was dangerous driving because looking at my rearview mirror was looking through a carnival mirror.  A shop in Huntsville replaced that window and repainted/fixed parts that the first shop hadn’t done right. 

Again unfortunately, the saga isn’t quite over yet.  Now that I’m back in Tuscaloosa, I’m supposed to contact my insurance company again to have my car reassessed and probably fixed again.  But I’m not even that mad; mostly I am just happy to be mobile again!  And to still have the car that Grandma worked so hard to get me.  It’s a blessing.

3.         My best friend got married!  (I was the maid of honor, and this will probably get another more detailed post soon.  With pictures!) Katie is now a Coppens, and none of us could be happier.  My weekends in July were pleasantly consumed by a bridal tea, lingerie shower, bridesmaid luncheon, and bachelorette party.  And those were some of the best weekends of my life!  It was great spending time with Katie, her family, family friends, and my fellow bridesmaids.  What an unbelievable month!

Then came the weekend of August 6.  Friday was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  It’s no secret that I can get a little emotional, but I was a wreck that night!  When Katie walked down the aisle to her entrance song during the rehearsal, I pretty much started bawling.  Katie’s dad and Zack’s dad told me I would have to hold it together during the actual wedding or they might both lose it, too! 

I also got entirely too emotional during the speeches at the rehearsal dinner.  Zack’s dad got me crying right before I was supposed to talk, but somehow I held it together during my maid of honor speech.  But I cried again during Jake’s, Katie’s dad’s, and Zack’s sister’s speeches.  It messed up all the real makeup I had bought specifically for this weekend!

Wedding day was also an emotional rollercoaster, but it was one of the best days of my life.  Katie was literally the most beautiful bride ever in history of the world.  No, I’m not biased.  I broke down right before the wedding seeing her in her wedding dress, but I mostly held it together during the actual ceremony.  It was hard to keep my lip from quivering, though.  But all the emotions were happy ones, and the ceremony was incredible.

After the I do’s (actually, I wills), we went over the Limestone Springs to dance the night away.  I cried AGAIN during Katie and Zack’s first dance and when Katie danced with her dad and Zack danced with his mom.  But it’s their fault for choosing such emotional songs!  The music was great and the reception was a blast, and I cried for the last time when the newlyweds drove away in the Rolls Royce.  It was perfect!

4.         Just the Wednesday after Katie’s wedding I went to D.C. and New York with my good friend, and former across the hall neighbor, Matt.  We went to D.C. to visit Chris, another very good friend (and another across the hall neighbor).  Chris is going to Georgetown this year ( :) / :( ), and Matt and I took it upon ourselves to help him get settled in.  Not like actually helping him set up his house but more like having tons of fun and forcing him to be our tour guide.  Basically the same thing, right? 

Either way, we had loads of fun in D.C. (and ate at my new favorite restaurant Roti… like Mediterranean Chipotle) for a day or so before Matt and I took the Bolt Bus to New York to stay with his friend Josh for a couple of days.  We navigated the subway system, ate dinner at Shake Shack, saw Times Square, slept in Brooklyn, ate real New York bagels, spent hours walking in Central Park, took an entire afternoon (still, not nearly enough time) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ate dinner in Little Italy, again spent the night in Brooklyn, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate some not so real New York pizza, and took the Bolt Bus back to D.C.  It’s exhausting just writing that, but it was so much fun!  I don’t know if I could live in New York, but I would love to visit for longer.

When we got back to D.C. on Saturday night, it was time for our last big hoorah.  We ate Afghan food (YUM!) and then hit the town with three other UA folks.  It was a glorious night, and it ended with late-night empanadas.  Perfection.  Sunday was spent touring Georgetown, eating delicious cupcakes at Baked and Wired, schmoozing with important UA grads, touring monuments, and finishing it all off with a bottle of wine that we risked our lives in a storm for.  Monday we went to Ben’s Chili Bowl (where the Obama family and Bill Cosby eat free), saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, toured more monuments, and then sadly had to pack up and leave.  All in all, it was a great way to spend some of the last days before we all get sucked into the grad school vortex.

5.         Speaking of the grad school vortex, these are quite literally the last words I will write before I am sucked into it.  There are less than two hours now until orientation.  I realized I never fully disclosed my graduate school plans, mostly because I didn’t make those plans until after the tornado.  After April 27, I just couldn’t see leaving Tuscaloosa behind quite yet.  So I accepted a fellowship, found an apartment, and went home to relax for the summer.  Now, nearly four months later, I have moved back to Tuscaloosa to make good on my word.  For the next twelve months, I will be working toward a Master’s degree in Applied Economics.  I know it may sound terrible, but darn it, it’s practical.  And somebody has to fix our economy, right?

15 hours this semester.  Here’s to the end of my social life as I know it!  Thank goodness my summer was so outstanding.  Roll Tide.

RAGING

As you can probably tell from the title, this post is not going to be a happy one.  But I am going to ease you, wonderful readers, into my anger slowly.

First, let me apologize for not writing in an entire month (especially during the summer, when I am really not that busy).  I planned to write about my Alaska trip but never got around to it.  I do plan on writing about it soon, but first there is something else I need to address:

Just exactly how angry I am at UA.

I woke up to a tweet from one of my best friends, Caroline, that one of our favorite restaurants in Tuscaloosa has closed down.  It saddens me to say that restaurant is Crimson Cafe.

I can't pinpoint the first time I ate at Crimson Cafe, but I know it was during my freshman year at UA.  Their food was great, especially the pizza bagels Katie and I always got and their drinks and lemon squares.  I loved that they had enough vegetarian options to keep me full and happy!

Admittedly, I often purchased my food with Dining Dollars.  (I used my debit card or cash when I could, though, because they offered a 20% discount for doing so!)

Sadly, those Dining Dollars are the main reason that The Crimson Cafe is shutting down after 18 years of business.  Here is the link to the Tuscaloosa News article explaining exactly why they are closing.  To summarize, Crimson Cafe must pay Aramark 21% of all Dining Dollar transactions.  TWENTY-ONE PERCENT. 

While I understand that Crimson Cafe chose to take Dining Dollars (originally paying Aramark 15 percent of transactions sometime in the 1990's), it is clear they had to make this choice to stay in business.  When students are your target demographic, you have to do whatever you can to keep them coming back.

Students are paying with their tuition, not by choice, to get $300 in Dining Dollars each semester.  I've heard the argument that you can get that money back at the end of the year if you don't spend it all, but that doesn't matter in the moment when the only food money some students have is their Dining Dollars.  They have no choices other than to buy food at inflated prices on campus or to dine at one of the few restaurants that accepts Dining Dollars.

Most students aren't aware that over twenty percent of their money is going not to the restaurants they patronize but instead to the ever-looming Aramark.  I, personally, would prefer that my money pay for my food.  Call me crazy, but that's how I feel.  Aramark has taken over dining on and around campus, and it disgusts me.

It really upsets me that my school, The University of Alabama, did nothing to help Crimson Cafe.  Especially after the tornado!  The administration can try to shift blame to Aramark, but the truth is that they hired them to monopolize dining.  The Strip is losing so much of what UA students love, and our school has no desire to stop it.  In fact, maybe the University is happy to see another local business gone.  They sure seemed to want Lai Lai off the Strip earlier this year!

When I drive through campus and the surrounding area with my mom, she barely recognizes anything.  The Strip is completely different than it was when she was at UA not so long ago, and I don't think that's a good thing.  As if the tornado didn't steal enough from our community on April 27!  Now it seems we're stealing from ourselves.

For such a historic school, our administration seems to have no interest in preserving anything that they're not profiting from.  I was a business major and understand how businesses work, but The University of Alabama is not a business.  First and foremost, it is an institution of higher learning; I feel like what I'm learning is that unique small businesses have no place in the area surrounding UA.

Hopefully Alabama will make sure another fun chain restaurant or leasing office opens up in Crimson Cafe's spot!

Cotton Row Run

This post will not be as long as the last one, promise.  Even my uncle wasn't patient enough to read through the whole thing without sighing every once in a while.  Halfway through he said, "Couldn't you have just written, 'I love animals,' or something?"  I guess that would be a very concise summary of how I feel!  Haha.

Anyway, now I will start writing about what this post is actually supposed to be about: my 5K yesterday!  (My excitement is totally fake.)

My mom is much healthier than I am, and she recently rediscovered how much she loves to exercise.  She does zumba, yoga, and other classes at the gym, and she also decided to take up running a few months ago using a "Couch to 5K" app on her iPhone.

We are not exactly runners in this family, but Mom definitely has the long legs, unlike me, and potential to be one!  She gets up ridiculously early (I'm talking 5-5:30 AM) to fit in her training runs before work.  Her app started with intervals of walking and running, and by the end of it she was able to run nonstop for something like 45 minutes.  Ridiculous!

Near the beginning of her running, she asked Scotty (my younger brother) and me if we would want to run a 5K with her.  My first reaction was no because I hate running, but we both decided to do it to support Mom.  She even bought me really nice running shoes to encourage me to run.  I planned to start the Couch to 5K program myself, but that never happened.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, was the day of the Cotton Row Run.  There is a 10K for the serious runners, a 5K, and a mile fun run.  Scotty and I joked that we should've signed up for the mile run since neither of us was prepared to run 3.1 miles.  Okay, maybe it wasn't joking.

We got to downtown Huntsville, where the race has been held for the past 31 years, at 8 AM to make sure we could find a place to park.  There were super-intimidating/impressive, skinny, sweaty runners from the 7 AM 10K recovering everywhere near the finish line.  A lot of them were resting and refueling so they could run the 5K at 9 AM.  Seriously?

My mom, her morning running buddy, Scotty, and I all stretched and tried to mentally prepare for the race.  We tried to stay in the shade because it was ridiculously hot and sunny already.  It was around 80 degrees during the 5K race, possibly the hottest it's ever been for the Cotton Row Run, and probably not good for a first-time 5K runner/walker.

The race was not so fun for me.  I really should've gone for at least one run anytime in the past few years to prepare!  Haha.  I ran for the first half mile or so, but then there was plenty of alternating between walking and running.  It took me almost 41 minutes (40:48) to finish.  Don't make fun of me, okay?  I think I could've powerwalked the whole thing faster; my walking was really slow because I was hunched over and cramping from dehydration.  Pathetic.

I was incredibly proud of Mom, though!  She was so nervous before the race that she wouldn't be able to do what she had been working so hard for the past few months.  I found her after the race, and she told me she had finished in 34 minutes!  Her official time was 33:56.  That's less than 11 minute miles.  Yay, Mom!  She was the fastest woman her age (not her age group, but her specific age... lol).

Scotty finished in 31:11.  Also impressive, obviously.  It probably helps that he has long legs and close to 0% body fat.

I have a newfound respect for runners now.  It's ridiculously hard, and you have to be physically and mentally strong to push through it!

The point of this post, other than to brag on Mom of course, is that I'm now inspired to stop being so lame and out of shape.  I have all summer to get in shape before grad school starts (I need to write a post about that, by the way...).

Plus, I want to lose 10 pounds for Katie's wedding that is 67 days away.  Totally doable!  I just need all of you, particularly my inspiringly athletic friends, to hold me to that.  :)

If I am still a fatty and can't run a 5K by the end of the summer,  I will have failed.  Period.

Scotty, Mom, and me before the race.  My smile is fake.  Scotty and I are cute and matching because we both wanted to rock our T-Town, Never Down shirts!

Happy to be finished and pounds lighter from losing water weight!

On the car ride home.  Exhausted.  (Notice the American flag I wore in my hair for Memorial Day!)

Why I'm a Vegetarian

My name is Stephanie.

I am a Virgo, a Chapstick addict, a Southerner, a liberal, a sweets lover, an Alabama football fan, a Guster fanatic, a college graduate, and a vegetarian.

“Really?”  (Insert head cocked to the side here.)

That’s the reaction I most often get when I tell people that I am the last thing on that list: a vegetarian.

Combine that with being a liberal, and I’m surprised I haven’t been kicked out of the state of Alabama yet!

In all seriousness, though, vegetarians are a rare breed in the South.  Down here we’re all about home cooking, fried chicken, and barbecue.  Putting the words “Southern style” in front of any vegetable means it’s likely prepared with chunks of ham or pure fat.

This is not meant to be a knock on the South; it’s just one aspect of the culture in this region.  I’m proud to say I’m from Alabama despite the limited food choices I have here. 

I just want to take this opportunity to write about why I chose, and still choose every day, to be a vegetarian.  I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, and I am finally doing it now because it is National Vegetarian Week! 

Don’t worry.  I’m not recruiting for some guerilla vegetarian organization (though I do follow PETA on Twitter).  Also, don’t feel like I’m trying to convert you; this isn’t a sermon.  But it is a testimony.

I became a vegetarian on January 27, 2008.  I never actually remember the date (I had to look it up.), but I do remember that it was the day after the Senior Bowl my freshman year.  The last meat I ate, if my memory serves me right, was a turkey sandwich provided to me by the Million Dollar Band on the way home from Mobile after that football game.

Laura, one of my best friends, had approached me about giving up meat with her for 40 days.  One of her friends in Auburn had suggested it, and she wanted somebody in Tuscaloosa to do it with her.

I understand why she asked me specifically to do it with her.  I have always been weird about meat.  I never liked hamburgers or hotdogs, pepperoni, beef, or pork.  The only red meat I ate at all for a long time was Taco Bell “beef.”  People always poked fun at me for my strange eating habits.

I did eat turkey, chicken, and seafood.  But I started to be wary of even these meats sometime during high school.  My mom would cook chicken, and I would refuse to eat it if I thought there was even a hint of pink in it.  Meat just grossed me out.

It wasn’t just the actual meat that made me uneasy back then either; it was what had to happen for that meat to be on my plate.  I wanted to cry (and throw up) when I saw pictures of people hunting poor, innocent animals.  On the most basic moral level, it never seemed right that an animal had to die just for me to eat a meal.

I think I was predestined to be a vegetarian.  Mom, Scotty, and I were looking through my baby book a few months ago and discovered a page that said my favorite food was macaroni and cheese and that my least favorite food was meat.  Not much has changed.

I think I could have stopped eating meat at a much younger age than 18, but it was never logistically possible.  Firstly, I honestly don’t know if I had ever interacted with a vegetarian before college.  I don’t know any vegetarians now either, but I have had some interaction with them.  Secondly, it’s difficult to make autonomous food choices when eating lunch in the school cafeteria and living in your parent’s house.  My options were to eat what was provided or to eat nothing at all, and Lord knows I was never cut out for a hunger strike.

Now, back to my story.  I agreed to join Laura in giving up meat for 40 days.  Those days were easier for me than for her.  It honestly was barely a challenge at all.  I liked not eating meat; my only real trouble was finding things I could eat using my meal plan and dining dollars.  Again, Alabama is not the most vegetarian-friendly of states.

Unfortunately, my vegetarian options were mainly cheese pizza, pasta, French fries, desserts, and other terrible foods.  Vegetarianism is often touted as being very healthy, but there are certainly ways to make it unhealthy.  And I was guilty of every single one of them.  (Since then I’ve become much better about eating my fruits, vegetables, and meat-free proteins.)

After the 40 days were over, Laura eagerly returned to her carnivorous ways.  I, however, decided to continue my vegetarian lifestyle without a set ending date.  Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.

As of today, I have been a vegetarian for 3 years and 4 months.  (The only meat I’ve purposely eaten was a couple crawfish this year at Mardi Gras, though some people don’t consider that meat.  And I felt guilty afterwards!)

Yes, I’m one of those people who goes to college and changes in some major way.  Instead of questioning my religion or my sexuality, I questioned my food.  And I’m so glad I did!  I feel better physically and emotionally, and that is what matters to me.

When I tell this story to people who inquire about my not eating meat, it often isn’t enough.  They want more specific reasons I choose not to eat meat.  While there are plenty of statistics I could use to explain my “alternative lifestyle,” I don’t feel like that is the best way to get my point across.  Instead, here are a few of the “buzzwords” surrounding vegetarianism and how I feel I relate to them:

Health—This probably initially had the very least to do with my choice to be a vegetarian.  I didn’t become a vegetarian to lose weight or to better other measurements of my health, although these are definitely valid reasons to give up meat.  In fact my doctors would probably prefer I had stayed a carnivore due to my severe anemia (low iron).  But I would argue that not eating meat is generally healthier than eating meat, and there are plenty of numbers to back me up.  Meat is so much more likely than fruits or vegetables to be contaminated by something dangerous.  And there are much safer ways than eating meat to get all your essential vitamins and nutrients!

Environment—I remember almost nothing from AP biology in high school, but I do remember one thing about food chains: each level only gets about 10% of the energy from the level before it.  It is INEFFICIENT to eat meat.  I could say that my eating vegetables instead of meat means that nine more people could also eat vegetables (rather than one person eating meat), but this is an overgeneralization.  The bottom line is that meat production is not sustainable.  Cutting any amount of meat out of your diet can save a remarkable amount of energy, and it can also decrease pollution.  You think driving an SUV is bad for the environment?  I dare you to look up how bad meat production is.  If you’re one of those whackos like me who believes that human activities impact our environment and our (another buzzword…) climate, the data will be absolutely appalling to you.  Maybe it’s the hippie in me, but I’d prefer that our planet be usable for many generations to come.

Ethics/Animal Rights—No, animals are not people, too.  However, they are living, breathing, sentient creatures.  What gives me the right to take an animal’s life for my sustenance when I could literally eat anything else? I don’t see any significant difference between my dogs sleeping on my couch and the cows, pigs, and chickens that most people have in the center of their plate at every meal.  While some people are able to eat meat without thinking of the animal it came from, I just can’t.  (On a related not, last year I read a summary of an interesting study about how vegetarians and vegans differ from omnivores in feeling empathy.) And the conditions under which these creatures are raised and slaughtered are repulsive to me.  If you really love animals, as so many people say they do, why do you eat them?

So there you go.  There is a simple (I promise, I could have written much more.) explanation of my road to vegetarianism. 

I have been asked many times whether I think this is just a phase.  As I noted before, plenty of people experiment in college.  It’s okay to be a little crazy when you’re young and finding yourself, but is it possible to sustain this lifestyle forever?

I guess we’ll see.  While I personally could see myself being a vegetarian for the rest of my life, there will come a point where I am no longer the most important person in my life.  I hope to get married some day, and the chances are slim that the man of my dreams will be a vegetarian.  It isn’t exactly on my checklist.

And when I have children, I don’t know that I could make them be vegetarians.  I made my own choice about eating meat, and I think my children should have the same opportunity.  While most parents obviously want to pass their beliefs onto their children, I am not the kind of person to force my choices (as good as I think they are) on other people.  I certainly haven’t tried to coerce any of my friends into vegetarianism over the past few years!

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.  Even feel free to criticize my logic or my opinions if you’d like.  I’ve been teased plenty since that fateful day I became a vegetarian.  When it’s not lighthearted, I brush it off.  So bring it on!

Until next time when I’ll talk about religion, gay marriage, and abortion!  (Just kidding.)

Recovery

As promised, although after a little longer than anticipated, I want to write about my experience in the days after the storm, some of the damage I saw, and the relief efforts I've witnessed in Tuscaloosa and the surrounding areas.

My friends and I returned to Tuscaloosa from Northport the morning after the tornado.  It took us at least an hour just to go a few miles.  We noticed damage we had not yet seen on our way back.  A number of cars were mangled off the side of 359; I don't know whether they had been blown off the road by the tornado or just so damaged by the tornado that they were not drivable.  Either way, it was horrible to see.

And it was even worse to see the city of Tuscaloosa again.  It hit me especially hard to see 15th Street because it is the street where both of my brothers and I live.  Seeing it all again in the daylight hit me like a ton of bricks.  It's truly a miracle that my apartment complex was basically untouched; houses just a few hundred feet from mine were unrecognizable.

That day, our group did what we could to help a friend whose house was beyond repair.  Thank God he wasn't home when the tornado hit; his roommate was, under a mattress in his bathtub, and amazingly he is okay.  I had seen the destruction along 15th as a whole, but seeing the destruction of this single house was really hard.  And all their neighbors were just as unfortunate.

Later we walked along Hargrove, and that was even worse than what I had already seen. Although many have volunteered since, and much of the debris has been cleared, it's like every damaged area is worse than the last.

Scotty and I ended up leaving Tuscaloosa on Thursday night (Kenny drove us there since we're both without cars for a while...), the day after the tornado, to stay with Katie in Oneonta for a few days.  There was very little good I could do in Tuscaloosa at that point with no transportation and no resources.

While I was in Oneonta, Brian Williams and President Obama both visited Tuscaloosa.  Two of my favorite people in my very own town!  I only wish the circumstances hadn't been so unfortunate.

On Saturday morning, my mom drove down from Madison to Oneonta to pick Scotty and me up... and to give us really big hugs, obviously.  We all stayed at Kenny's condo in Tuscaloosa for a few days (since his place had power and Madison was still without).  I was so grateful to be with my Mom, and I know she was glad to be with us.  Can you imagine all three of your children's lives being threatened so seriously at the same time?  Scary.

That Sunday night, it was announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.  That news would've meant more to me any other time.  As it was, I was mostly just paranoid that this news would take focus off the tornado damage across the South.

We had originally planned to go home with Mom, but instead Scotty and I decided to stay in Tuscaloosa to volunteer for a few days.  She left on Monday, and we went to volunteer that afternoon at UA Greek Relief that afternoon with my friends Laura, Chase, Chris, and Joey.

This group was certainly doing a great thing, delivering thousands of hot meals to victims and volunteers every day for a week.  My friends and I were happy to help, despite the fact that we are all "independents."  I hate to criticize anybody who contributed after the tornado because we are all absolutely on the same team.  My only criticism, which is obviously secondary to my appreciation of the organization, is that the group was too focused on self-promoting.  I understand using social media to ask for donations and volunteers, but I don't think it was necessary for them to brag about what percent of the hot meals in Tuscaloosa they were responsible for.  Again, more importantly, their contributions were enormous.

So we decided to find other organizations to volunteer with in the coming days.  Chase, Chris, and I stayed at Laura's apartment (which was outside the damaged area) for the week to volunteer.  It was raining all day Tuesday, so all we were able to do was register at St. Matthias church (the volunteer headquarters at that time) to volunteer the next day.

Early Wednesday morning, the one week anniversary of the tornado, we (and Joey) went downtown to volunteer for Samaritan's Purse.  This organization is a religious one, but all that mattered to us was that they provided us and hundreds of other people a chance to get our hands dirty and really help Tuscaloosa.

Eddie (our able-bodied, chainsaw wielding team leader) drove us to Alberta, an extremely hard hit area in the eastern part of Tuscaloosa.  I almost cried when I saw it in person; I'd seen it on the local and national news, but of course seeing it in person was harder.

We were with a group of maybe fifteen people that cleared debris (trash, parts of houses, and lots of trees) for about five or six hours.  In that time, we made significant progress in clearing three yards.  THREE YARDS.  It's hard to fathom how many man-hours will be required to clear the eighty mile path of destruction caused by our single tornado.  Saying it will take years is no exaggeration.

Later that afternoon, we tried to donate blood.  Unfortunately, the blood drive (done by an organization that shall remain nameless) we went to was very poorly organized, and we didn't have time to donate.  Next time, I'll only trust my blood donating to the Red Cross.

Thursday was Cinco de Mayo, and Scotty's birthday.  We were physically and emotionally exhausted from the day before, so we used the day to run a few errands and relax. In addition to being Scotty's birthday, it also happened to be the night of what was supposed to be my last undergraduate final.  In an alternate universe where the tornado never hit, we would all certainly have been celebrating.  Enjoying ourselves in spite of the tornado just felt right.

Friday morning, we called the UA Community Service Center to find a volunteer opportunity.  After a bit of a misunderstanding, we ended up volunteering at the Temporary Emergency Services (TES) down 15th Street.  Another exhausting, overwhelming, and rewarding experience!  We unloaded seemingly never-ending donations from a long line of vehicles into the giant warehouse.  Bags and bags of clothes, food, and other supplies were stacked high all around us as volunteers worked to keep everything organized.  It was a beautiful sight, and I know this warehouse was just one of many being run across the city and state.

After TES, my friends and I volunteered by helping a church to deliver hot meals.  I assumed we would be going to Alberta or Holt, but we actually went the other direction near where the tornado first touched down.  The damage that we saw was again horrific.  It's especially hard to see because so many of the affected areas weren't very nice in the first place; so many people who were already poor before the tornado have even less now.  Another eye-opening day, for sure.

That night I went with my best friend Katie to Gallettes, a very popular bar if you aren't familiar with Tuscaloosa.  Again, it was what I should have been doing in an alternate universe in which graduation was supposed to be the next morning.

Mom drove down to Tuscaloosa on Saturday to find an apartment for me to live in next year and finally to take Scotty and me home.  We bought "T-Town, Never Down" t-shirts and celebrated my would-be graduation day with lunch at Tut's with Kenny.

And so ended my time in Tuscaloosa.


A few photos from the days following the tornado:

Downed tree at my friend's house.

Between Hargrove and 15th.

Across the street from my apartment.  Notice the missing forest from "Forest Lake."

The building right next to mine.

A glimmer of hope from my shattered back windshield.

A closer view of Forest Lake's forest...

One of the places where we delivered hot meals.

This post turned out a little more personal than I intended.  And it may also have turned out less positive than I hoped.  Instead of attempting to edit my original account, I would like to add a few closing remarks.

The relief efforts I saw in the week I spent in Tuscaloosa post-"April's Fury" were simply beautiful.  I expected to see an overwhelming number of students, victims, and Tuscaloosa residents working to clean up our town.  What really touched me was the incredible number of outsiders who inconvenienced themselves to come help us rebuild.  So many individuals traveled from all over, and I can't begin to list all the organizations (even if I knew them all) who have helped in some way.

I wish I could personally thank every single person who has volunteered time or money to help Tuscaloosa recover.  For now, this is all I can do.  Thank you all so very much.

4/27/2011

As I sit down to write this post on my mother's couch in Madison, I have to admit that I don't know where to begin.  I anticipate writing a few posts over the next little while.  Today, I plan to write about the tornado itself and the day it hit.  Next, I want to write about the recovery efforts I've witnessed, and have been a part of.  Finally, I want to write about graduation and the like.

By now, twelve days after the tornadoes that devastated my home of Tuscaloosa and much of the state of Alabama, you've likely listened to or read many accounts of the storms from all over.  My personal account likely won't be eloquent, but it will be real.

I've had almost two weeks to process everything, but I don't know that any amount of time would be enough.  I don't think I can ever comprehend why what wikipedia calls "a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air" had to hit the place I've called home for the past four years.  


I'm really not selfishly asking, "Why me?"; I'm asking, "Why us?".  On the one hand, I must question why so many of my friends and I were put through such a horrific ordeal only a week and a half before many of us were scheduled to graduate.


On the other, much more dominant hand, though, I am asking, "Why not me?" and, "Why not us?".  I am fortunate to have escaped the tornado with no bodily harm to myself or to any of my friends.  This would not have been the case if I had lived even 100 yards (or even less) down the road... or across the road.


So here are a few technical details before I delve into my experience with the storm.  I'm no meteorologist, so I'm trusting the numbers I've found on the Internet.  The National Weather Service officially classified the tornado that ripped through the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas as an "upper end EF-4."  Peak winds were 190 MPH (That's MILES PER HOUR.  What goes that fast?), 10 MPH below what is required to be considered an EF-5.  It was up to a mile wide at points and stayed on the ground for 80 miles.  According to one article I read, it caused approximately 65 deaths and 1,000 injuries.


By themselves, those numbers are already overwhelming.  But the scariest part is that the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa was not the only tornado that day; it wasn't even close.  There were hundreds of tornadoes across the Southeastern United States (with Alabama being the hardest hit state) on April 27, 2011.  Different sources have reported different totals, but around 200 tornadoes is the number I've seen repeatedly (possibly with some of those on the 26th or 28th).  The one that hit Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, two towns I'd never heard of before the storms, was an EF-5 over a mile wide that was on the ground for around 130 miles.


Another scary number is the number of deaths: 340.  I know some people are still missing in Tuscaloosa, and I'm sure it is the same throughout the Southeast.  That number could very possibly rise.  And it's even harder to process when you realize that each of those deaths represents a person with a family and a life and a future.  There's the real path of damage these twisters left in their wake.


April 27, 2011, was a normal Wednesday.  My first class on Wednesdays this semester was rock climbing at 11; we didn't have class because it was dead week, so some of my classmates (including Laura) and I decided to go to El Rincon for lunch.  I had huevos rancheros and a margarita, a nice last meal before the storm.


I went back to my apartment, tried to nap, and ended up watching the weather with Scotty.  I had class at 3:30 and 5:00, but I decided not to go because the weather looked scary.  Jonathan didn't want to go to his 3:30 class either, so he came over to ride out the storm with us.


We continued watching James Spann.  He kept showing footage of the tornado that had struck Cullman earlier that day.  Then he started tracking a dangerous storm cell that was going to hit the northern part of Tuscaloosa County.  He emphasized that The University of Alabama was not at risk from this storm.


But before I knew it, we were at risk from a second storm.  Eventually, The University of Alabama was under a tornado warning.  At 3:44 PM (what was supposed to be 14 minutes into my first class), I received an e-mail that classes were cancelled until 4:45 PM (15 minutes before my second class).  I couldn't believe the University was taking things so lightly; in my opinion, classes should've been immediately cancelled for the remainder of the day.  (Tuscaloosa City and County schools did not go to class at all that day!) I had no desire to put myself in extreme danger just to attend my last economics class of the semester.


Scotty, Jonathan, and I continued to watch the weather, and our e-mails.  Finally, at 4:27 PM (around the time I would normally be leaving for a 5 PM class), we received an e-mail saying classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.  


I was so relieved classes were cancelled that I barely thought about the reason why.  It's not that I wasn't taking the tornado warning seriously; it's just that we'd had numerous "warnings" the days and weeks leading up to the storm.  (I'd even driven in a tornado warning to see Guster in Birmingham!)  We were all just a bit too desensitized to the tornado sirens, to tornado warnings.  I think the same must have been the case for the administrators who waited so long to cancel class.  Surely they didn't mean to put students in danger; they just didn't want to overcautiously cancel classes.  They were lucky this storm didn't hit campus, or the number of senseless deaths would surely have been even greater.


Next thing I knew, James Spann was talking about the city of Tuscaloosa.  He showed footage of a tornado from a camera downtown;  I thought the tornado itself was downtown.  Instead, this tornado that touched down at 5:13 PM was headed right for me.  I was eating a piece of string cheese (that I still had in my hand long after the storm) in my dining room, as far away from the windows as possible, when Scotty told me he could see the tornado outside our apartment even closer than it was being shown on TV.  I was hesitant when Scotty said we should run from our 2nd story unit to the single story clubhouse, but I threw on my shoes, locked the door, and we all literally ran for our lives from the rapidly approaching tornado.


As we bolted into the clubhouse, a nice man/angel pointed Jonathan, Scotty, and me in the direction of a closet in the workout room.  We joined about 10 other people and a dog in this little space, closing the door behind us.  It couldn't have been more than a minute or two before the tornado hit.  Everyone talks about the sound of a tornado, like a train, and I'm sure I heard that sound.  But what I'll never forget is the sudden, rapid changes in pressure.  All of our ears were popping over and over as if we were in a plane constantly changing altitudes.  It probably only lasted 30 seconds, but it was the longest 30 seconds of my life.  We had no idea if the roof above us may get sucked off at any moment... we had no way of knowing what was happening outside.


After we felt the storm had passed, some of the braver occupants of the closet decided to go outside and assess the damage.  Scotty was one of those people; I was not.  Scotty called Mom as he walked outside, and fortunately he was able to tell her we were safe before the call was lost.  There were tornadoes in North Alabama as well, and Mom didn't know she had to be just as worried about as as she was for herself.  I would much rather Dan Satterfield talk about the danger in Huntsville than say that 15th Street had just suffered a direct hit from a tornado.  It was for the best, although the lack of information and contact over the next few hours was dangerous.  As soon as the storm passed through, I tried to call my older brother Kenny to make sure he was safe wherever in Tuscaloosa he was.


Scotty came back in and told me a lot of cars were missing windows.  When he said that included mine, I almost cried.  Little did I know at that point how lucky we had been.


I walked outside and saw debris everywhere.  Every car along our building was missing windows along the left side, and some had broken back or front windshields.  My car was parked along a different building, and it was even worse off.  My back windshield and right side windows were gone, and most of my car had taken a beating from flying debris.  I couldn't help but be emotional; again, I didn't know how widespread the damage really was.


Then I went to see our condo.  Amazingly, only our living room window was broken, and it wasn't even completely shattered.  Inside, I could see that the ceiling was leaking in a number of places from shingles being ripped off our roof.  But we were so lucky that our condo was one of the least damaged in the entire complex.  Huge trees had fallen on some cars outside, and a few condos had their roofs completely ripped off.  Just feet from my condo!


People from University Downs were walking down the entry road to our complex to see 15th Street, but I was scared that there may be another tornado coming.  Again, we had essentially zero information beyond exactly where we stood.  I went back into the clubhouse with a number of other people in case another storm was on its way.


It's hard to remember the exact timeline of events right after the storm.  All I know is that at some point Kenny showed up and Scotty brought him to me; I gave him the biggest hug you can imagine while I cried into his shoulder.  We were grateful that all three of us (and our honorary brother Jonathan) were safe.  Kenny had gotten a ride from a total stranger just so he could get to us and make sure we were okay, and I'm so glad he did.


Eventually, I did walk to 15th.  The car dealership next to our condo I walked past along the way was really bad off.  Huge pieces of metal had been twisted and torn off the back, and every car in the lot was damaged.  When I made it all the way to 15th Street, I couldn't believe my eyes.  Across 15th Street, the Forest Lake area looked terrible, and almost no trees were left standing.  The intersection of our entry road and 15th was trashed, with wires downed everywhere.  To the right of us looked okay, but we knew it was worse to the left.  We couldn't see over the hill down to McFarland, so nobody knew the full extent of the damage in that direction.  But it looked bad from what we could see.


I kept trying to call my family.  I was able to post a status on facebook to say we were okay, but no calls or texts would go through.  I did get some texts and voicemails, but I just couldn't get anything out.  Eventually, thank God, Scotty got a hold of Dad.  He was without power as well and was without adequate information about Tuscaloosa.  I think Scotty was the one to tell him the city where three of his children live had taken a direct hit.  I'm glad I didn't have to relay that information myself (though I did have a chance to talk to him later that night).


My friends and fellow section members Marcus and Grayson showed up after walking from Midtown.  They said the damage was impossible to describe.  I wanted to see, and rashly decided we all needed to leave my apartment.  I packed a backpack of clothes, grabbed my laptop, and made my way to Midtown (with Scotty, Jonathan, Marcus, and Grayson).  All I can say is that Marcus and Grayson were right.  The damage was indescribable.  Businesses and restaurants were flattened.  Cars were flipped over or crushed under debris.  We could see all the way to Home Depot because nothing was standing in our way.  I couldn't understand where I was exactly because there were no landmarks.  It was just devastation as far as any of us could see.


As we walked, I got a call from Kenneth and Joey (also friends and members of my section).  It was the first call that had gone through on my phone, and I emotionally told them everybody I was with was okay.  I was relieved when they told me who all they knew was okay as well.  Campus wasn't hit (thank God), so our younger friends were fine.  They told me their place had power and water if we needed a place to stay, and we all eventually took them up on that.


It was getting dark at this point, but we surveyed the damage from the top of Midtown.  It was mind-blowing.  Tuscaloosa was totally unrecognizable.  Unfortunately, the condos had no power or water and were in a heavily impacted area, so we knew we had to leave.  Marcus tried to drive the five of us in his Camaro to Joey and Kenneth's place in Northport; but it started raining, he didn't have his glasses, and he couldn't see anything because there were no lights and we were blocking his rear view.  Thank goodness Laura was able to come get us and drive us to Northport.  


It was like a whole other world over there, untouched and seemingly unaffected by the deadly tornado.  The only thing they didn't have was cable, so we still had very little information on what had happened.  It was days before I found out the sheer magnitude of our tornado... and then of the innumerable tornadoes outside Tuscaloosa.  We ate and talked some and tried to process what we had just experienced, but it's something you can't put into words.  Certainly none of us could.


We all slept restlessly for a few hours that night.  Unfortunately, when we woke up, we knew it hadn't all been a terrible nightmare.

I took these pictures right outside my condo.  For a number of reasons, I didn't take pictures as I walked along 15th that night.