For A Minute, I Thought I Lost Everything

Today was seriously the scariest day of my life. It started off normal enough: I loathed the idea of going to work, and I listened to one of my favourite CDs repeatedly so that I could momentarily get lost in the music and forget how much my life sucks at the moment.

For starters, it's a long weekend here. And I have to work the whole thing. So my brother and his wife, my sister, and my best friend all got to go to this huge country music festival that happens every year, and I didn't get to go. I don't listen to much country, but this weekend is generally an excuse to go and party with people that you haven't seen in forever.

I was at work when the weather warnings started. The wind picked up, and the sky got really dark in a matter of minutes. So I texted my sister to see if the weather was that bad at the concert. I never got a text back, so I had to take on the 'no news is good news' perspective.

Then a customer told me that they'd just heard on the radio that the wind had blown over the stage at the festival, and one hundred and fifty people were trapped underneath. I immediately started to freak out. Just about everyone that I love was at that concert. The guy that was performing at the time of the incident was the whole reason that my brother went to the festival, so I knew that they hadn't skipped it. All of a sudden, my mom and two different friends were calling me at work to see if I'd heard from my sister, and if everyone was okay. So I started texting everyone that I knew that was at the concert and called a few, but I couldn't get through. Apparently, there were so many people trying to make calls and send texts that a lot of them just weren't being sent unless it was a 911 call.

Finally, my sister's best friend called me and told me that my sister, brother, sister-in-law, and herself were all together and they were fine. She'd also heard a rumor that there was a tornado nearby where I was, so she wanted to make sure that I was okay. It was completely ridiculous to me that they were all sitting around worried about me while I was worried about all of them. There was no tornado, by the way. I still hadn't heard from my best friend.

He always texts me back. Half the time, he texts me so quickly that I can't be sure he even got the message that I sent him. So when I didn't hear from him, I was really worried.

This girl at work was only making things worse, because she's so incredibly self-absorbed that she was talking about how many Facebook friends she has, then got mad at me when she figured out that I wasn't listening. I told her what was going on, but she only pretended to care for a minute, then went back to talking about whatever she was talking about before. There was a point where I actually got so frustrated that I told her I didn't care and I didn't want to hear any more, because no matter what she said, there was no way I was going to be able to pay attention.

When I finally got to leave work, I called my best friend. It was an hour and a half after I texted him. He didn't answer. I would have felt better if it had at least went straight to voice mail, because then I could have believed that his battery had died or he didn't have service. But it just kept ringing.

My mind always goes to the worst-case scenario in times like that. I just kept thinking about how nobody had ever gotten me the way he does, and how I couldn't bear to go back to life without him. I was in tears by the time I got home. I was just closing my front door behind me when I got a text from my best friend saying that he was alright. I literally collapsed, I was so relieved. I don't think I've ever gotten a text that made me happier.

So I called my mom and told her that everyone was okay. She told me that there's still some people trapped under the stage, and there's one confirmed death. They're calling off the rest of the festival for this year. I guess Tim McGraw won't be playing tomorrow, after all.

It's still scary, since I know a lot more people that went there this weekend, but at least I know that the most important people to me are safe. I can't remember the last time that I was that terrified. I really hope that they get everyone else out of there, and that nobody else dies tonight.