"I've never seen anything like it in my entire life."

After a night of tornadoes, I made it to Oklahoma safely. Barely. The story of Oklahoma, for me, is a tragic story of bare minimum survival, so it only seems fitting to return to finish the final, unclosed chapter of this state this way, in the midst of tumultuous, life-threatening storms.

I microblogged the adventure today on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

The best part about being back this time is catching up with my BFF Brandi. Its been awhile since we really had a chance to sit down and update each other on our lives. She was literally trembling when I saw her and for a second I thought she was going to cry. I thought I was going to as well. When we hugged the moment I got off the train, it was a whirlwind of emotions that matched the swirling of the majestic clouds; clouds so supernatural, and golden outlined by the sun. They were regal enough that you would've sworn Greek Gods that controlled the weather patterns lived within their coral airbrushed puffiness; delicate, but courageously sized.

"I've never seen anything like it in my entire life", Brandi said, and the hug we shared felt like, "Thank God you're here and we're still alive."

There was something extremely symbolic about the event I could hardly contain myself. I think it has something to do with dreaming last night that I was stranded in a house by myself and the tornado sirens went off as I was in this two-story dream house. I looked out the window and saw a black wall cloud tacked up against a green air canvas and saw a tornado funnel forming. I called Ryan (in the dream) to tell him about it because he wasn't with me.

So yesterday morning when I woke up from the dream, before leaving for Oklahoma, I immediately told him about it. I said, "Why can't you just skip work and come with me so I don't have to call you to tell you about how bad the weather is." Then this evening, on the Amtrak headed to Oklahoma, I called him to...well...tell him about the bad weather.

Looking back on this time last year and looking within myself, the transformations I've gone through, my friends and family have gone through...the transformations our lives have gone through together [and apart], I have to agree;

I've never seen anything like it in my entire life.

YOU gave me more to live for
more than YOU'LL ever know