Florida Fun: Hurricane on the Horizon

I am about to head out to the store in an attempt to beat the paranoid hurricane shoppers for some goods just in case Hurricane Irene decides she wants to rock my world for a few days. This is a great excuse to by cans of ravioli's, and if there is no power, I wont feel like a disgusting pig eating them out of the can.

I am living about 20 minutes from the coast right now, does that mean I am in an evacuation zone?

I need to find these things out, sooner rather than later probably.

What happens if the dog needs to poop?

Is it bad that I am hoping the weather is a little crazy so that R's work is closed Friday so we can spend an extra day together?  

Maybe we will get a few extra days together.... 

He is further south and closer to the coast than I am, so I mean.. they don't want to risk it, riiiight?

Clearly I am worried. 

I remember my senior year, we got 3 hurricanes in a row. My parents stayed with my grandfather because he had underground power, and my sister was still in diapers then-- so power is important if you want live like a normal person. Plus babies and extreme heat probably aren't much fun for mommas.

It was two weeks before we got power back in our neighborhood. 

Two weeks that I vaguely remember because it was spent participating in a lot of debauchery.

When I was packing to move to Chicago, my step mom was "helping me," and found a case of empty beers under my bed that I forgot about from Charlie, I got a talking to that night.  

At least they didn't find the roaches in the dresser.. I am was a space cadet.  

Oh, High School.

ANYWAY. What is on my Hurricane Readiness list you ask?

Well.. Here it is, I LOLed so I thought I'd share.

1. Wine

2. Water

3. Chef Boy'Arde with peel off lids

4. Apples or something healthy

5. Baby wipes (aka bath in a box)

6. Scrabble 

7. Deck of Cards You have this, don't buy more.

8. Candles

Wow, I have my priorities straight. 

I just hope we have a flash light somewhere around here.

No seriously, it's not a joke because it's a pretty big storm and there are a lot of communities that are really unfortunate and have to evacuate their homes; unfortunately, while a good majority of folks are just inconvenienced by losing electricity, a lot of people lose much more than that. 

So for those folks, I'll be sending the good vibes. 

As for myself, I reckon I'll be fine since there are no large trees adjacent to the property and it's new construction. I think this community might have underground electricity too, which might ruin my plans for can ravioli. 

Note to self: Find Breaker Box.

I have to make light of the annoyance of preparing for a storm though; storm weeks are a nightmare for someone with social anxiety.. Every multipurpose & grocery store in town is packed with frantic people and screaming children. 

I can feel my stress levels rising just thinking about it. I can already feel the walls caving in on me, the bright lights and tight spaces... did I mention the screaming children?

I don't know what it is about going to the store and people disregarding the Three-Foot Bubble, I am really not down for that sort of violation of personal space. I mean really. Stop breathing on me stranger!

AND I just noticed it's still rush hour, I am going to wait a few more hours to save myself the embarrassment of a public panic attack.

Breathe in, Breathe out... 

xo, r