Today was a count-down-the-hours kind of day for good reasons. The kids were geeked to have a high school babysitter for the first time. I was excited to eat finger foods that weren’t chicken nuggets and french fries. Bacon wrapped chestnuts? Yes please!
Ked and I met up downtown at the art museum for a design talk by Bill Moggridge, one of the founders of the international innovation and design giants IDEO and the man credited for inventing the laptop.
Just as the host was making the introduction, tornado sirens started. He stopped and everyone looked around wondering what to do. Someone from the museum assured us that we were in an interior room on the 1st floor of a concrete building and there was no need to evacuate. They closed all the doors making me feel like I was being shut in a vault. While everyone attempted to settle down again and the speaker regained his thoughts, I was nervously twitching my iphone. Ked leaned over and whispered “Text them.”
We were sitting on the third row, and for the next ten minutes I tried to discreetly exchange messages with the babysitter. She assured me that everything was ok and they were hunkering down in the basement to watch a movie. One of our children tends to freak out about tornadoes (I think it stems from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), but even that child had remained calm. What a first babysitting experience for all of us!
The storm passed and all was well, and I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out with adults. Although I did feel a bit out of place while Ked and I were talking to the host (whom Ked had as a professor last fall) who then introduced us to Mr. Moggridge. After Mr. Moggridge had asked Ked about his work he then turned and asked me what I did. I replied that I was staying home with our 2 young children and doing a bit of writing on the side. And then I felt so much like a fish flopping on land that I really didn’t hear what he said in reply. I asked Ked later, “Did I just make a complete fool out of myself with probably the most genius man I’ve ever met?” He didn’t seem to think I had.
My adult, non-kid-topic conversation skills are getting rusty. I don’t mind much though, as long as there’s bacon wrapped chestnuts involved!
Wow I was wondering how your evening went. We had heard that you would probably be under tornado warnings last night we are suppose to be today and later on this evening. In fact I don’t think I even heard the tornado sirens that generally go off on Wednesdays at noon. Guess they were afraid if they sounded them that people might think they weren’t just a test. We certainly have had our share of rain & wind glad it is suppose to be nicer for Friday & Saturday. 🙂