What a friggin' storm last night!

I probably should have paid closer attention to the weather-- or reminded myself that we no longer live in Clarion, and that you have to take "flash flooding" seriously. I definitely shouldn't have gone to see The Hangover last night (although it was hilarious!... that said, please, no one reading this go and see it, because I do not want to traumatize you). Needless to say, it was an interesting night. Oy!

So, as mentioned earlier, in Clarion, "flash flooding" means (generally) that the sewers might overflow a bit because it rains so hard, so quickly. Apparently, in Pittsburgh this really does mean "stay the hell where you are. because you're not getting back if you leave".

Last night, Justin and I went to see The Hangover in North Versailles, about 10 minutes from Monroeville. When we left, it was a really awesome "summer storm". Heavy rain, thunder and AMAZING lighting. Something I'd love to sit on my balcony and watch. "No big deal," I thought. "This stuff comes and goes all of the time."

So, we drive our little tooshies to the movie theater, the entire time I'm staring in awe at the massive lightning-- one which I swear struck in the same place five times. The sky was constantly lighting up the prettiest shade of pink. The entire way through the movie, we heard thunder and lightning cracking. My friend, Ashley, texted me to say it was "really bad out", but since I was watching the movie, I 1) didn't read closely, and 2) dismissed it because DUHHHH its scary out. It's storming. Again, no big deal.

When we got out of the movie, Justin checked his voicemail only to have received a call from Cody, who was warning him that it was really bad out and that a lot of the roads into the city were shut down. "Bull crap, we'll be fine" we think. Then, no more than two minutes later, I get a call from my mom. Similar statements, sounds worried, uh-oh, better call her back. "Are you okay? It's really bad down there (really mom? hadn't noticed) blah blah blah, be careful, keep in touch"

Okay, this MUST be getting serious if my mom is calling. There could be two feet of snow on the ground and she wouldn't call... but this, I guess was legit.

Long story short, we ended up getting home after about an hour of dead ends, due to roads being closed, driving through several inches of rain water COUNTLESS TIMES, driving on the wrong side of the road at one point to avoid a fallen TREE (not branch, entire tree). A lot of the roads really WERE closed, and it was really frustrating to see people attempting to make it across, only to fail miserably (and get stuck... good job idiots!), but we DID make it. Sans GPS (it failed us when we tried to use it), sans the roads we knew (they were all closed). Just a simple 2x4 inch map on Justin's phone. Motto of the week-- all's well that ends well. Phew!

But seriously... GEE WHIZ, that was QUITE a storm!