I have come to the conclusion I don’t handle stress well at all. Surprisingly I handle tornadoes about the same way. Nerves of spaghetti I tell ya, nerves of spaghetti. But somehow I kept my cool while internally screaming throughout the whole experience. Last night I walked into the bathroom, holding my phone, and it turned into a hot potato of alarming noise. It said to take shelter immediately because there was a tornado in our area. I stared at my phone in disbelief, not even thinking that it could happen. Then I hear the alarms going off outside my window. One can not panic when one wants to panic. Breathe I told myself. So I have a basement. My first thought is let’s get in the closet. The basement was not my first go to thing that popped into my head, because Owen does not like that basement. But I knew we had to get to the basement. I headed down with Owen, but before we got to the basement door I thought about him needing shoes on. Back I went to get his shoes. This in itself is a big stumbling block for us. We don’t wear shoes in the house, autism rules and routine in full swing for this. I sat him down and quickly put his shoes on, telling him everything was fine and it would be okay. He luckily went down the stairs with me. We were in the basement for about twenty minutes. He handled it all relatively well, but the basement contains things that “make ah de noise”. We had his tablet and thankfully that was helping to distract him, but I wanted to get us out of the basement. I wanted safety for us and others. And I wanted to keep it together until the alarms stopped. I’ve relived last night over and over, thinking about his shoes, knowing he had to have his shoes on in case of an emergency, but still overthinking every moment. My thoughts are with all that were affected by the storms. I hope that I have proved to myself that I can weather the storm and Owen was a champ. Life happens when you least expect it. Know that you are stronger than you think. Make today matter. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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