Exploring the Nation's Capital, Part 3

In case you missed it, here are the other two parts: Part 1 | Part 2

Sunday, Jan. 9: I'll spare you all the details, but I woke up on Sunday not feeling good at all. The thought of walking the Mall and going out to eat, etc., was too much for me. Plus, I have tons of pictures of all the D.C. monuments from my last trip when I went with my family in 1997. Instead, Michelle and I watched a bunch of movies and some tv, ordered in and made a good little day of it. I was back to feeling like myself by the end of the day.

Monday, Jan. 10: I'Luckily, my flight didn't leave until 4 p.m. and I was able to print my boarding pass online. That left just enough time to hit one more museum, grab lunch and then send me on my way to the Reagan airport via metro. I'd never been to the Portrait Gallery before, so that was our final stop of my trip!

I'm not a huge art fan, but I heard good things about this gallery. My favorite part was how each portrait had a plaque adjacent to the image, stating who the person of interest was and a brief biographical paragraph explaining the subject. Some of my favorites were the Presidential Hall, the 20th Century Americans and naturally, the sports wing. I'm a big modern history nut, and snapped a few pictures secretly with my phone :) The following is some of what I saw:

Signed Lance Armstrong portrait

The 60s rock concert poster art was seriously one of my favorites!

Reggie Jackson in an OAKLAND A'S jersey (can you tell who my favorite team is?)

Combined Hepburn sister Oscars

The beginning of the sports exhibit & museum's architecture

Remember how I fell in love with the Elvis displays at the Newseum the day before?! Well there was an entire hall of portraits dedicated to Elvis and the photographers who followed him around the year of his 21st birthday. He is a very attractive and interesting figure in Americana. I still want to learn more about Elvis and plan to someday pick up his biography!

Eventually we had to part ways, but I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. However, there were massive snow storms in Georgia and in the northeastern US states that day. As a result, Delta's hub in Atlanta was shut down for several hours and flights all over the country were affected by that. Luckily, my flight to NYC was only delayed about 45 minutes. However, once the plane was on the runway, we actually sat there for close to 30 minutes. I was nervous I'd miss my connection in NYC.

But when I did land in New York, I found out that flight was also delayed over an hour, leaving me plenty of time to explore and find some dinner. After eating out all weekend, I was not in the mood for any fast food. Instead, I found a cute little French bistro called Croque Madame and ordered up some chicken pesto with a salad and water bottle.

I ordered at the to go cart and decided I had enough time to sit down in the dining area. It was then I realized just how big the "restaurant" actually was. And the BEST part?! Instead of menus and waiters, you order from an iPad and it sends a message directly to the kitchen!!!

(Source)

No joke, this was the most high-tech dining experience I've ever had! The food was amazing and I nestled myself into an individual, one-person dining pod, complete with European/US compatible outlets and of course, the iPad. It did cross my mind to play with the iPad, since each one came stocked with hundreds of apps, but my hygiene-obsessed mind got the best of me. Who knows how many people touch those each day, all of whom end up eating, touching money, food, their faces and possibly mouths. Not the most pleasant realization to have mid-dinner. Instead, I just enjoyed the idea from afar. I'm also not kidding when I say this restaurant literally has hundreds of tables, so imagine how much it must have cost to order that many iPads.

It was a really cool end to a frustrating day of travel! I finally made it home, in bed, sometime after 1 a.m.

I still haven't unpacked my luggage...

Exploring the Nation's Capital, Part 2

In case you missed it, here's the recap from my first two days in D.C.: Part 1

Saturday, Jan. 8: When we came back from the bar on Friday night, Michelle told me it was starting to snow! The forecast predicted snow for about half of my trip and I was ecstatic to wake up to a very small dusting of snow and frost on Saturday morning. However, it didn't last long. In fact, it melted as soon as the sun came out pretty early in the day.

Michelle and I decided to go explore some more museums on Saturday, because we had big group plans for Sarah's birthday night. First up, in what turned out to be my only trip to the Mall the entire weekend, we headed out to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. I had memories of going there with my dad when I was 13, stopping at ever single exhibit, reading every single piece of information and watching movie after movie on aviation history and war aircrafts. Blahhhhh.

We had other plans! Michelle found out that the "guy who killed Pluto" (the planet of my youth, honest what good is the mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies" mean without Pluto?!?!), was going to be talking at the Air & Space Museum that afternoon. Being the astronomy geek that I am, I didn't need to be told twice. Except, to our dismay, he was just signing books for two hours. How lame! And I was not about to spend what little money I had funding the guy who killed the dwarf planet!! We went exploring instead and pretty much stayed in the space portion of the museum.

You can't just cover up my childhood with a big black square!!

Next we were off the Newseum since Michelle picked up two for one admission on Groupon. I'd never been and if you know me, you know that I'm a big news/journalism geek. So onward. (Noticing a theme here?)

The museum was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was super poignant and emotional. We were actually starting at the top, sixth floor, looking at an overwhelming exhibit on Hurricane Katrina in the news and its aftermath, when I received a text about the shooting rampage in my own state... The irony was the exhibit was about how instantly we can access news now with the Internet and cell phones. I definitely teared up right there on the spot.

The entire museum was a mix of fascinating, terrifying, emotional and basically mind-blowing exhibits to me. I loved every second of it and would definitely go back again, or recommend anyone to go see it who hasn't yet!!!

Exhibit honoring Elvis' 75th birthday

Largest intact section of the Berlin Wall

Sports journalism exhibit

The media antenna from the collapsed World Trade Center and a three-story wall of front pages from newspapers around the world

After the surreal and somber experience of the Newseum, we headed back home after it closed -- spending close to three hours there. We got ready for Michelle's roommate's sister's birthday (Sarah, as I've mentioned before) and headed off toward an awesome restaurant in Georgetown called Thunder Burger & Bar. Touted as an edgy, rock & roll restaurant, I literally got the vibe that I was dining in Wonderland. Maybe this'll help shape your opinions on the matter...

(Source)

I tried to get a good shot of the menu, but again, it was dark and edgy. The grass on the walls really made me feel like I was in a completely different world. I even joked to someone that when my beer came out, I half expected it to have a tag that said "Drink Me."

(Source)

To boot, I was insanely excited about every song they played on the speakers. Bush, Killers, 30 Seconds to Mars, and more pretty good tracks I generally listen to every day. When it came time to decide, I made an absolute game-time decision and decided to go for the "Rock the Casbah" burger (House Made Falafel Burger, Topped With Diced Onions, Tomatoes & Herbed Cucumber Yogurt Sauce) over the "Learning to Fly Burger" (Herbed Ground Turkey Burger, Topped With Swiss Cheese, Avocado, & Granny Smith Apples). Neither it, not the seasoned fries, nor the winter citrus beer, disappointed.

I was pleasantly full and enjoying good conversation meeting new people as we went on to our next stop: Mr. Smith's of Georgetown. Another first for me -- I'd never been to a piano bar before! While crazy busy, Mr. Smith's had the beer of the month club for $3. Basically everyone in there was clutching $3 (decent) bottles of beer and singing raucously to the banging of the keys and the Irish-sounding singer. Unhappy with being squeezed into a small area in the back, I took initiative and scribbled down on a Post-It note that we were here with a birthday girl! And thus, the entire bar burst into the Birthday Song to Sarah. It was pretty entertaining. Later, I got him to play one of my fav songs, "Your Love" by the Outfield.

It was a really, really amazing experience (the crappy iPhone video does it zero justice). I'd totally go to a piano bar again, provided I was with a large group of people! And that's saying a lot, seeing as how again I did not have a single drop to drink at the bar. Ok, that's a lie, I tried a sip of the $3. That's how I made my informed opinion that it was decent beer ;) We eventually closed out the night in the back dining area, listening to a group of guys tell joke after joke after joke.

I am totally jealous of all the amazing things to do in D.C.!!! Stay tuned for the final recap in my next post.

Week 2: Visit an old friend from college! (Part 1)

Welcome to my second new thing of 2011! I promise I'll stop saying what number I'm on when I get further into this project :) So on to our second week of the new year. I went to school in Southern California (UC Santa Barbara). Most of my fellow alumni moved either into the LA region or out of state. I've visited a few of my Los Angeles friends on trips that coincided with work trips. If you didn't know, working in sports, I've basically had to work on the road and travel every two weeks since I graduated from college. It left me with plenty of opportunities to see old friends!

However, one of my old roommates, Michelle, moved to D.C. after college. We've been in frequent contact and I've said I wanted to go out there several times! In 2011, it finally happened. I visited my first friend from college on a non work-related trip! So here's a quick recap at my first time back in Washington D.C. in over 14 years (this will come in installments of three, I have waaaay too many pictures!):

Thursday, Jan. 6: After having to wake up at 4 a.m. in Arizona in order to make it to the Phoenix airport before my flight, Thursday wasn't too eventful. I hope you don't blame me for a lack of excitement that day, seeing as how I was way tired and passed out not long after dinner.

Friday, Jan. 7: Michelle worked in the morning and I went with her roommate on a chilllllllly 3.1 mile run past the zoo, etc. After warming up and showering, we grabbed some lunch and kicked off the sightseeing trip! First up, the Smithsonian National History Museum. I saw a lot of amazing things, beginning with the closest to my heart, Julia Child's kitchen!!!!

I also got my cheeseball moment in on the top floor, by Colbert's portrait :) I mean, neutral, ambiguously-aggressive face:

On that floor we also saw American Pop Culture pieces, like Dorothy's ruby red slippers and a Muppets exhibit!! It brought me back to my youth and made me smile :)

Along the way were some other really interesting exhibits on the nation's First Women, including pictures commemorating the Kennedy inauguration, first ladies' dresses and of course, Michelle Obama's stunning dress encased in glass. I wish I were that fabulous ;)

Afterward, we made our way back and got to check out some famous monuments in the sunset and twilight hours:

Since I'm not too ashamed to admit I'm such a giant nerd, we quickly ended our romp around the museum in order to make it to the night's events: wine tasting put on by the French Alliance and dinner for Michelle's roommate's sister's birthday weekend (did you follow?).

The wine tasting, while French, was fairly marginal. Since it was free, I assume they picked cheap wines. Hey, I'm not one to complain about anything free or French ;)

Former roommates at the wine tasting room!

For Sarah's birthday weekend dinner, we basically ran across the street and washed up wine tasting with margarita pitchers... classy ;) I don't want to sound like a brat, but being a California/Arizona girl, I'm mighty spoiled when it comes to Mexican food and margaritas. But these hit the spot and led to a wonderful time.

Half of our dining party of eight :)

Blurry... like my night. Ok, you caught me. I only had one. And I didn't even drink at the bar after!

In all, I had a wonderful trip (for a moment I forgot I was unemployed... ok maybe during the wine tasting and margarita madness, ha)! Michelle has a lot of really awesome friends and I opened up quickly, never once having a shy or awkward moment (another "new first" for Monique, ha!). I got to sample a lot of local D.C. culture (as in the bars and dining establishments enjoyed by other 20-somethings) and for real got my nerd on in all the museums. I loveeee American history/culture. I can't wait to share more with you tomorrow. I also can't believe I'm back in Arizona already... where it is close to 70° ;)

More to come tomorrow! Good night kids.

I can't believe we're going home!

Again, I failed to reach my goal of waking up early and running today. Last night I went to bed around 1:30 a.m. (our last game finished around 12 a.m.) and set my alarm for 7:45 a.m. I planned on working out for around 45 minutes to an hour in order to grab some free hotel breakfast before it closed down at 9 a.m. Instead, I continued to hit snooze until it was my turn to shower at 10:30 a.m. No storms to report today, so that's good news.

Sleep was wonderful. I'm still feeling slightly sick, but on the upswing.

This morning we headed out for some touristy time in Omaha's Downtown Market area. We decided to keep lunch light with Subway. I opted to try their new orchard chicken salad sandwich on wheat. The only other items I put on my sandwich were spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers and olives. No cheese, no sauce. It was decent. My usual order is a 6" turkey on wheat with Swiss cheese, but I'd switch it up again for this sandwich.

On the side I tried the new Baked Lay's, Parmesan Tuscan Herb. Again, pretty good, but I couldn't finish. To drink I had about a half a cup of Fuze green tea with a touch of honey.

We walked around the Omaha Market for a bit, getting lost in all the fervor and excitement this city has for college baseball. One of the stores even had a chalk bracket being updated on the window near its front entrance. People here love themselves some college baseball. Nearly everyone we walked by was sporting some kind of team-affiliated gear.

Then before heading back to the stadium for Game 7 (ASU vs. South Carolina) at 3:30 p.m., we grabbed a quick cup of ice cream at Maggie Moo's. J.D. had the nastiest combination I've ever tasted in my life (which he loved, btw): mango sorbet with peanut butter sauce drizzled on top. I opted for a mix of cocoa amaretto and lowfat vanilla ice cream with bits of Heath bar. It was heavenly. I could only eat 3/4 of it.

Not very pretty, but tasty!

Upon our arrival at the stadium, we finally got a chance to play tourists before the stands began filling up. We also had a few minutes to catch Arizona State's batting practice, which apparently didn't work out so well since they gave up 10 runs in the first four innings, ouch.

It is elimination day again and after yesterday's loss Florida went home, so I decided to wander the Fan Fest area in hopes of scoring some reduced priced gear. I snagged some good buys though -- for my family, awww.

Today is our last day here at the College World Series and we have two total games to work. After this current one, dinner is slated to be chili dogs. No worries, I won't be taking pictures of that mess. I'm glad this is the last day eating here, it's been so good, yet so bad for me. We fly out tomorrow at 7 p.m., so we'll have one more half day of sightseeing here in the Midwest. If you're curious about seeing all the pictures I've snapped and haven't included in this blog, check out my Facebook album from this week.

When I return home, there are two consecutive 5Ks I'm thinking about running. One in Lodi this weekend -- maybe not a great idea since I'm still sick, but I could use it as training instead of actual competition -- and one near my parents' house on the 4th of July.

What do you think, should I run in both??? Because guess what, half marathon training begins next MONDAY!!!!! I still haven't yet picked one because I'm waiting to see if we will be moving in the next month or not. As soon as I know, I'm signing up for one! :) Oh and the next time I blog here, I'll be back in California! ♥

TGIV

I have been MIA. From the College World Series. But no damage done, since yesterday was highly delayed due to rain and this:

(Source)

Like I've been saying, I'm terrified of thunderstorms. I was even nervous for J.D. since he was camped out in the super tall metal press box as lightning bolts struck within five feet of the stadium. For every strike in the six-mile radius, the game was postponed 30 minutes. Long story short, it ended up being over a nine-hour game when taking into consideration the rain/thunderstorm delays.

While this mayhem went on, I stayed home sick. Very, very sick. Waking up in a cold sweat, hot and shaky sick. And my throat is still killing me. As J.D. left for the field, I stayed in bed until 12:15 p.m. Thankfully, we're staying at a friend's house instead of in a hotel so I got to lounge around in good company and watch TV.

When I felt better Beth made me a grilled cheese sandwich. Then after a few hours of House Hunters and the on-going delay of the only College World Series game played last night, we needed to venture out for food. Mexican sounded good for some reason, so I indulged in a bowl of tortilla soup. Except, spicy food is probably the worst choice I could have made with an irritated throat. Boo. At least it tasted good before I choked uncontrollably.

Bedtime came and went and I rolled around in bed freaking out with every roar of thunder. The lightning became so intense it illuminated our entire room -- with both the blinds and curtains closed -- on multiple occasions. I'm such a wuss out here. I don't know how long it would take me to get used to nights like this if I had to live out here.

This morning, feeling much better, we stopped at Starbucks with the morning rain delay for a grande nonfat chai and cup of oatmeal. Forgive me for lack of photos here, but I'd feel really weird snapping photos eating at the press dining rooms. Ehhhh.... maybe I'll brave it another time?

Lunch has been more buffets of fruit, veggies and burgers/sandwiches. I swear to God, I'm eating sooo unhealthy here with only having one meal that involves fruit/veggies a day!!! Can't wait to get back home to Trader Joe's and abundant produce and home-cooked meals!

So what exactly am I doing here you might ask? Well, first and foremost, playing tourist. Rosenblatt Stadium has held the CWS for 60 years and will be closing after this month. As a baseball contact in collegiate athletics, I owed it to myself to see it before it shuts down. Secondly, I'm volunteering my services for the media relations crew. That means during the game I go into the dugout and find out which players will be appearing in our official press conference. I wait for the game to finish, collect the players and guide them to the conference room. During the conference all I have to do is take notes and write down who asks what question. Piece. Of. Cake.

Now while I wait for the end of the game to roll around, take a look at some of what I've seen here at Rosenblatt:

View from Clemson's dugout

My pressbox camp for the week

Game 1: Florida State vs. TCU

Rosenblatt Stadium

Now, it's elimination time. Teams are starting to go home as of today. After this we have one more day of volunteering and then fly out Wednesday evening. I'm hoping to wean myself off of these cough drops and Dayquil pills before then. Wishful thinking, maybe?

Oh well. TGIV (Thank God It's Vacation, people).

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Is EXACTLY how I felt yesterday afternoon. I'll get to that in a second.

Originally I had my heart set on waking up at 8-ish, going down to the fitness center and getting in a good 3-4 mile run on a treadmill and possibly snag a banana from the lobby. The promise of treadmills with TVs excited me greatly, because then I'd be able to watch the USA-Slovenia World Cup match that kicked off at 8:30 a.m. Instead, the moment my alarm sounded, I hit snooze and rolled around until 9:20 a.m.

Bothered by a severely scratchy throat and throbbing sinus ducts that left the edges of my world feeling fuzzy, I made myself stumble to the bathroom and took a good 35-minute relaxing bath. After drying off and changing I found J.D. glued to the TV around 10ish. He was watching the Weather Channel of all things.

This is where my life collides with George Orwell's novel, 1984. All of a sudden a metallic voice starts ringing in my head. At first I believed it to be conflicting feeds on the channel. But then he turned down the volume and I realized the crackly voice was coming out of a speaker near the bathroom. A la Big Brother.

"Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention....." he drifted off. I looked at J.D. in horror, noticing the storm from the previous night had continued into the morning.

"The city of Des Moines is on a tornado warning," the voice continued. "If you are a guest in the room, please close all your drapes and move towards the bathroom area, away from the window."

Then I really started freaking out. A tornado?!?!??!?!?!?! I've never been in one before and I don't really plan to. Luckily, none of J.D.'s go-to weather stations showed any signs of tornado watches. In fact, they all just said we were in severe thunderstorms. Which, I guess is ok considering the alternative. Although the announcement chimed three times during the duration of the storm, we were stuck in our tiny room on the 21st floor for nearly an hour and a half. So, while I sat on the bed and read/got ready for the day, J.D. showered as normal and we finally were free at 11:45ish. Finally, we were able to go out for breakfast.

I'll limit my commentary here, because it seems like everyone has an opinion. But I was able to watch a bit of the World Cup during this lockdown period. I was about to give up as we trailed 2-0. And then you know the rest. We did lose power on the TV stations for a while, but I got to see our second and third goals...... And well, let's just say I could hear people in every room around us shrieking about the call. Over the howling 70 mph winds. Again, no exaggeration, weather reports said wind speeds were between 70-75 mph. Yikes!

Eventually we made our way back to Drake's campus area for the day, looking for indoor activities while the rain finally trailed off and the temperature climbed back to 80. I wasn't feeling much breakfast because I started to get pretty sick. I enjoyed an English muffin egg sandwich and a big ol' cup of mint tea.

The mint tea felt soothing on my sore throat. But I wanted to get some actual cold medicine, instead of the bags of Halls I had been consuming. So we stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a bunch of supplies. And that's when I found this beauty:

After downing a shot, my throat felt great. But I felt like a chump, because even though this is non-drowsy day-time medicine, I was out like a light. Right before dozing off, I got a little loopy feeling. Not like the last time I tried Tylenol PM though, I was all "weeeeeeeee" for about 20 minutes before passing out cold. It's the closest I'm going to get to drug use. Anyways, my "adventure" took place during the middle of J.D.'s tour of Des Moines. So while he got to drive around and relive old sites from his college days, I was drooling on the passenger seat. Classy.

About 30 minutes later I woke up and asked for ice cream. He's been bragging about a malt shop for this entire trip and I was ready to try it! Cut me some slack, my throat hurt and ice cream sounded DELIGHTFUL.

We ended up splitting a peanut butter cup arctic blast -- one of the few things I could stomach all day! After devouring the ice cream, I desperately needed a nap. So we went back to the hotel where I dozed off for a good two hours while J.D. did some work. Upon my awakening he told me of another awesome place we were going. I felt refreshed and less ill and ready to roll.

Except that it started raining again. Which made our next stop the perfect place: a half-price used book store that was the size of a library!! If you know me and know that I was a lit major and opted to read books instead of going out often, you'd know this was right up my alley. I was good and only made off with two selections for about $5 each -- a history of famous Parisiennes: Marie Antoinette, Edith Wharton and Coco Chanel, and also a historical novel about French presence in the colonization of Latin America. I say historical novel because it's more like a story than cut-and-dry history. I'm a geek, it's ok. I've accepted it.

When the storm died down, we went back to the hotel to pack up and then walked over to the Iowa Cubs stadium for baseball game No. 2 of the trip. This one was of the minor league variety. And let me tell you, it looked like amateur baseball. Which is pretty bad. For dinner I kept it light with a small pulled pork sandwich.

Then walked around the stadium and watched a few innings of baseball.

After the game, I felt horrendous from all the crap we've been eating this week. Nothing a three-mile run couldn't fix. Even though I worked out in the air conditioned gym, the humidity still got to me like whoa. But it was necessary and I felt good despite the minor sickness.

We promptly went to sleep -- after watching Jimmy Fallon's late show -- and hit the road at 7:30 this morning en route to Omaha, Nebraska. Currently I'm sitting in the pressbox at Rosenblatt Stadium for the FINAL season it hosts the College World Series. Next year it's moving downtown. This is going to be an AWESOME experience. I've already rubbed elbows with Nomar Garciaparra. So stoked. I love baseball.

What's your favorite sporting event to watch?? Clearly, you know mine. During this week trip, we will have seen 10 baseball games. I'm at 2.5 right now.

Have a good one people!

That's weird, their flag's just like the French flag

Wow, blonde moment of the YEAR. Strolling downtown Des Moines, I grew very excited when I thought I had spotted the French flag adorning some random building.

"Oh look, it's the French flag!" I proclaimed, "Oh wait, not it's not. It's the French flag with something on it."

"That's the flag of Iowa," J.D. informed me. "This was a French colony."

"Oh yeah, Des Moines.... is French," I realized.

Wow, I suck at life. I also suck at being French. Either way, I wish there were more French attributes in this city, you know, like New Orleans, but not.

Anyways, it's late so I'll leave you with my meals today. I feel totally lethargic and out of it due to the insane heat/humidity. I don't understand how people workout here. But I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning. I plan on waking up early and going to the gym on the third floor of our hotel. Also, I came to the conclusion that I'd be both a drunk and broke if I lived in the Midwest. Hear me out a.) I keep wanting cold, alcoholic drinks at all hours of the day here and b.) or I just want to go into an air conditioned building, like a mall. Being a woman, we all know I can't go inside a store without spending money.

Right, so back to the food.... shut up, Monique, right?? :)

BREAKFAST

Whole Foods breakfast (for two, sorta)

LUNCH (at Drake Diner)

Tuna melt, only ate half

Vegetable cheese cup 'o' soup, my throat's getting worse so I wanted some soup

DINNER (Centro Italian bistro)

Pomegranate berry sangria

Gorgonzola pecan balsamic salad

Garlic Margherita pizza

And since I've been so hot and trying to hydrate, I keep having to go in public places hahaha. We ran to a close coffee shop -- ironic, right? -- and while J.D. became a paying customer, I used the facility. He got us a fresh-squeezed lemonade with hardly any sugar at all. It was amazing! The coffee house was actually a small, organic and vegetarian shop which definitely looks like a place I'd like to stop for lunch tomorrow. So not a bad find and use of $1.75, right?

Fresh-squeezed lemonade, yummy!

Curious about that background? Well, we had a fun time scoping out the art district downtown and also J.D.'s alma mater, Drake University. I'll leave you with some pretty bizarre photos, starting with me.

"Running" in front of Drake's football stadium

Creepy statue in the arts park

The Thinker or the.... creeper??

Alphabet Man

I'm going to wrap this up since we're on the 21st floor and there's a TON of lightning and hail. HAIL?!?!?! So while I scare you with creepy photos, I'll leave you with something pretty: the background of that lemonade picture. I, on the other hand, am about to dive under the covers and hide.

Question: Does extreme weather scare you?? What kind??? I'm totally ok with living through yearly earthquakes, but tornadoes, thunderstorms and hurricanes scare the living crap out of me.