

Last time there was a tornader in Garland, lightning flashed and lit up the jade-green sky. My mother and brother stopped talking instantly, and we gathered the dogs in the Harry Potter room under the stairs.
'Nader didn’t hit us, but it was still a shock to see the sky a color I’ve only seen in jewelry, or the random Pantone®© sample.
In Texas, we spent a semester (half the school year) learning Texas history, and the other half the year learning World History. This was during the start of “No Child Left Behind”, so it was basically “memorize the answers to the test”, instead of “actually learn the material”…