I am a weather stalker.

Yes, that's right, I said it. A stalker of the weather.

Perhaps it's simply an extension of my other natural stalking tendencies and a propensity for obsessive compulsive behavior.

Regardless, apparently its weird.

I'm not quite sure when it started, but at some point in time I became a fanatic checker of The Weather Channel. Every morning I'd make a dash for the remote to try and catch the "Local on the 8's." I'm thinking it was probably related to trying to plan what to wear for school, always an ordeal in and of itself (particularly during the first grade daily tantrum-due-to-cowlick phase ).

I then upgraded to the frequent check-in on weather.com to examine the 10-day forecast. And, of course, to keep an eye out for any of those flashing severe weather updates potentially warning about a threat of tornadoes or flooding or extraordinarily large hail.

Now, I have reached the critically disturbing point of becoming intimately involved with the interactive radar map. You know, just to see whether there are any large green/red/yellow masses of future precipitation heading in my direction.

I just want to be prepared. I don't want to be caught without an umbrella if a storm's a-brewing. I don't want to wear pants if its going to be a scorcher. I don't want to plan a day trip to the beach only to have my fun-in-the-sun cut short by thunderstorms. Clearly I am just planning ahead and remaining informed.

However, it has recently been brought to my attention – by a weirded-out boyfriend and disturbed coworkers – that apparently it is not the norm to masquerade as an obsessed meteorologist. Apparently some people don't even know where the Weather Channel is on their TV! In fact, one individual imparted the shocking fact that "Um, the weather is the weather." i.e. "You cannot change the weather (you weirdo) so why in the world do you feel the need to remain abreast of its every gust and droplet?"

Well then.
Point taken.
I'm working on it.