Whoops...

It's been a few days and it's been a whirlwind of activity since I returned from my Seattle vacation, which was amazing by the way.

I returned on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday began preparing once again for the move -- tying up loose ends, running random errands, etc.  I FINALLY received my orders first thing Thursday morning in and e-mail and spent all day finding people who could answer my questions, getting my moving date set up, and starting the leasing process for my apartment.  I didn't get the exact one I want.  It's the same complex and same floor plan but it's up on the top floor, which is going to cost me $20 more a month and it has vaulted ceilings so heating the place will be more challenging, but I can handle it.  Thursday night rolled around and so did the NBA Draft.  Congratulations to my pal, Courtney Lee, for getting picked up by the Magic on the 22nd pick of the first round!!  He's a great player and I'm excited to see what he'll do for them.

Friday was a doozy!  Worked from 6 to 2, it wasn't a bad day just a long one.  Felt like 2 o'clock would never come!  After work I headed back home to prepare for my Friday even plans: dinner at the Melting Pot and Pixar's new flick Wall-E with Rhonda and her awesome daughter Kay.  They came to pick me up at 430 and we were off, we had to drop her other daughter Rachel off at a friend's house across town by 5.  Right before I was headed out the door Daddy dearest called the house to warn us of the impending doom -- another big storm headed out way -- and encouraged me to check the Weather Channel.  So I hopped on good ole www.weather.com and scoped out the problem.  "Severe Thunder Warning" it said, so Rhonda and I figured it wasn't anything that we can't handle -- especially after the last few weeks of crazy storms.  So we were off.  We got no more than 3 miles away from the house and BAM!  Torrential down pour, extremely heavy winds were shaking the car, it wasn't fun.  We kept on driving (since there really wasn't much else we could do) and by the time we reached Rachel's friend's house it had calmed down well enough so that it was just now just bad rain.  We had the radio going to keep us informed about what was going on and we got hit pretty hard.  Tornado force winds in the West end of the city.  This is probably the most damage that Omaha has actually seen. We've had a lot of storms and a lot of tornadoes but this time the damage was everywhere!  Trees were mowed over, some of them falling on houses, cars and on the roads.  Fences demolished, some roofs ripped off, several fireworks stands were collapsed -- some with people still in them.  As a final finishing touch it also robbed trees of many of their leaves, leaving the city in a kelly green decoupage.  Power is still out in a good portion of the city. The annual Memorial Park Concert was also being held on Friday night.  People were waiting for the show to start when the sirens sounded and the place was evacuated.  And I can't forget about the art festival downtown that was ruined too.  I can't imagine how many pieces of art that these artists had worked on were demolished.  It was pretty bad.  Luckily the storm blew over in about 30 minutes, but it definitely left a mark.  After the storm had passed we had to change plans, The Melting Pot turned into Moe's and we had to return to Bellevue to see Wall-E.  The movie was amazing so go see it.

Yesterday was my final day of shopping for the apartment so the apartment is now fully furnished, praise the Lord!  I never realized how hard shopping for the apartment is.  Trying to remember what you already have. Making big purchase decisions about things that you don't really know about in your first apartment.  What kind of mattress is best?  Is this setting on this washing machine really necessary?  Will I actually use this?  Etc.  But it's done and the moving date is set: July 14th.  I'm getting a little nervous, I'm still very excited, but it's weird.  I'm leaving home, for good.  Sure, there will be visits and they'll be great.  But this is it, I'm flying solo now.  It's very odd.