"Dude, it's like Jurassic Park in my backyard!"

I wrote this story back in May, but just discovered it floating around in my archives, unpublished. The original date is May 25, 2004. Enjoy!

If you live in south-central Wisconsin, all this talk of X-Treme Weather is probably getting old. Tough.

It started here with blustery winds and quasi-torrential rains (what does it take to be 'torrential,' anyway?). Trees were flopping, flipping, and flapping and the ground went from soggy to soupy.

As you may know, our backyard is a little jungley already, so imagine the view from John Buchel's room with all this outdoor commotion. He was already excited about the "wild kingdom" noises coming from behind our house, but the thunder, rain and wind really got going. One day he came running downstairs and exclaimed, "Dude, it's like _Jurassic Park_ in my backyard!"

For a few days, Stormapalooza was little more than an interesting distraction. In some ways, it added to the after-school sense of chaos and anarchy that we feed on.

It wasn't enough that two people were living in my tiny bedroom;º it wasn't totally novel being out of school and going out any night of the week; and the ants living with us were mega gross and disconcerting but not really a big deal. But storms — that got us going.

I had been transported from the structured world of classes and finals to the wild and wooly One-Four-Two, complete with muddy backyard, strange animal noises, crashing thunder, and perpetual houseguests.

It's good be home.

º Having sub-leased her apartment, Michelle moved in with me for the week of May 17-23. It's a good thing she's not very big, because her stuff took up all the extra space in my bedroom.