Weather Girl

Recently, I have become the go-to Weather Girl at the office.  While I have no official training in meteorology, my co-workers and I strongly believe that I have a much more reliable and accurate forecasting system in place than the area's trained professionals.  I'm not sure if there is a technical term for it, but I call it...

"My Leg Hurts"

Yep!  Ever since I broke my leg, it hurts like a mother whenever it is about to rain!  Now, when we have cloudy skies, the girls at work inevitably ask me whether or not they should go roll up the windows in their cars rather than consult The Weather Channel. 

I used to feel so good that everyone seemed so concerned about how I was healing.  "How's your leg, Tammy?"  "Your leg doesn't hurt too bad today, does it Tammy?"  It wasn't until recently that I discovered that their apparent concern for my well-being was merely a ploy to determine whether or not it was going to rain.

I think the true extent of my "abilities" became clear a few weeks ago when a group of co-workers and I decided to walk a couple of blocks to go to lunch.  My leg had been bothering me that day, but I chose to ignore it, tough it up, and walk to the restaurant with the girls.  When we got outside and saw the ominous-looking clouds in the distance, I made an off-handed comment about how I really hoped we didn't get caught in the rain.  I even made a joke about how my leg was hurting more than usual.  We all laughed.

That is to say, we all laughed...  Until we stood up to leave the restaurant to walk back to work and discovered the torrential downpour that was occurring outside.  As the six of us huddled helplessly under the cover of the patio wondering how the heck we were going to get back to the office with only one umbrella between us, I (of course) just had to open my smart mouth and say, "I told you my leg hurt."  ;-)

After weighing our options, the consensus was that the least embarrassing solution was for me to call Katie and see if she would come get us.  Unfortunately she (and the couple of other so-called "friends" that we tried to call ;-) wouldn't answer her phone.  We finally admitted defeat, gave in, and Cheryl called our boss.  He was waiting for our call, and offered to come pick us up.  :-)

By the time Cheryl hung up the phone, the rain had let up to a light shower, so Carole (the keeper of the lone umbrella), and Cheryl and I (the two morons who decided that we weren't made of sugar and therefore wouldn't melt) decided to go ahead and walk back.  Cheryl called our boss once more and told him not to worry about driving over.  Carole was going to get her car and drive back to pick up the other three who stayed behind at the restaurant.

The three of us set out on our rainy adventure back to work...  Cheryl and I in all of our stupidity, and Carole holding her lightning rod high above her head...  (For the life of me, I've never been able to understand why the inventor of the umbrella thought it was a good idea to hold a metal pole over our head during a thunderstorm!  As far as I'm concerned, that's just asking for trouble!)  We made it back to the office, and Carole hopped in her car to head out to rescue the island castaways. 

Cheryl and I (in all of our drowned-rat glory) sauntered up the stairs...  and promptly ran into our boss who actually had the nerve to laugh at us!  The little snot (and I say that with all of the love and respect in the world :-) even had the nerve to say (with a mischievous grin), "I thought about saying something when you guys left for lunch, but then I thought 'Nooooo...'  I'm just gonna sit by the phone, wait for their call, and then make fun of them when they finally do."  Mmm-hmmm...  Nice. 

We didn't realize just how infamous our little field trip had become until about a week later.  Cheryl was talking to a co-worker from an entirely different department when she casually mentioned getting stuck in the rain the week before.  Our co-worker loudly exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!!!  That was you guys?!?  That story is legendary!  Everybody's talking about it!"  I think if Cheryl had a good throwing object handy I might have found myself on the receiving end of a projectile to the head.  "Tammy!" she yelled...  "You see what happens when you post stuff on Facebook?!?"  (Just wait until she reads my blog! :-)

After our lunchtime adventure in the rain, and my seemingly uncanny premonition that it would happen, the girls were a bit intrigued the following week when I said, "You know...  My leg's hurting today.  I think it's gonna rain."  They weren't quite ready to fully-embrace my new magical power just yet, but when the floodgates opened that night, they were all believers.  :-)

While I've only had a few opportunities to prove my newfound ability (It is nearing summer in Texas, you know...  Not much rain around here anymore.), so far I have proven to be correct every time I venture out to predict that day's chance of precipitation.  I now answer questions about the status of my recovery with, "Go roll up your windows." or "It's not gonna rain."

(*** Note - Names have not been changed to protect the innocent.  If I'm going down...  We're all going down! ***)