like selling ice cream in a tornado

day 4: 100 day project

An ice cream truck drove down our street last week. A tornado and serious storm warning had just gone out, and I was standing at our front window waiting to watch the sky turn dark. Sometimes it gets so black it’s almost as if night just fell, like a curtain all at once, smack dab in the middle of the day. It’s one of my favorite things about living here — the storms.

I could hear the ice cream truck’s music coming up the street, the familiar sound of Fur Elise - and I thought, “Well, isn’t that silly?” And then I thought, “Gosh, isn’t that wonderful?” Beethoven and ice cream in the midst of a tornado warning. Kind of like what living every day right now feels like. Every day, heading out into the storm, hoping to share something sweet in spite of it all.

The ridiculousness of it made me feel a little wild and impulsive, so I decided, “What the heck”, I’d take the dog for a walk. The sky was still gray, not black, and the wind hadn’t started yet. There was no rain, just that heavy sky, quiet and still — a little creepy now, though, with the only sounds being the quieter ending notes of Fur Elise traveling farther through the neighborhood. The dog and I made it to the second block before the wind started, and then immediately, instantly, the RAIN. My first thought was, “fuuuuck, another reason for the neighbors to laugh at me.” Look at the lady from California going for a walk during a tornado watch, five whole minutes before the storm hits. I know the neighbors don’t really watch me, but sometimes I catch myself in a very California cliche moment — like running outside as soon as the first barely visible snow starts to flurry in October and screaming with delight— and I just think “I hope this amuses someone else besides me.” So I hoped that the image of me running, half pulling Tilly, my small white dog, through the sheeting rain, made someone chuckle. And when we made it back to the house, and I stood at the window (this time dripping wet), humming Fur Elise (now stuck in my head), and looked down, the dog was smiling. I smiled back and I thought, “Some things just have to be done, despite everything, and no matter what anyone else thinks — like selling ice cream in a tornado.”

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This is Day 4 of my 100-day essayette adventure.

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Please excuse any grammatical errors over the next few months. 100 days of writing means I write, and I let go, and then…I do it all over again — all while caring for two small humans, a small nervous white dog, and a plethora of cats.

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I hope you find something true today.