My life as an evacuee

I must say hurricane surviving...not one of my strong points. I mean, I'm fine, and it's not like it was a struggle to survive or anything, but I am cranky, hungry, and REALLY want to take a shower.

It all started Thursday I guess you can say. As my last entry said, I was really anxious about not wanting to stay in my apartment by myself. But I figured I would have to work, so I was not sure I had any other real choice (starbucks never closes)...but when I got to work on thursday my boss announced that we would in fact close so that we could evacuate or hunker down as needed. Traffic had been pretty bad all day with people evacuating from Galveston, but I made the judgement to pack up and go to my moms when I got off work (at 9:30 pm). So I went home and threw a few things into a bag, and Libby's bag. I figured I would be at my moms until sunday tops, and I highly doubted her power would go out (my mom lives in Tomball). Luckily I traveled at an odd time so the drive to moms was fine...I didn't even have to use my newly purchased EZ tag (I know I FINALLY got one, I got tired of fishing for quarters) the tolls were free. Libby was just excited to have someone who wouldn't tell her no (my mom never really mastered that)

So Friday we ventured out to get a few necessary groceries...it seemed at that point that everything would be closed by later that afternoon...it was CRAZY. And really hard to figure out things that could completely be made without refrigeration AND microwaves (even though I still didn't really thing we would loose power). I also took what turned out to be my last shower that day too :(.All day the news was talking about the winds and rain coming, but it remained sunny most of the day. I think the wind started to pick up around 7 or 8...but we started hearing reports of power going out in Houston, so I was beginning to think I was right as the count of people who were losing power went up I was more and more relieved at my decision to go to my moms. But at 11 the cable went out...I thought that was bad...then at 2:30 am we lost power. It's crazy all I can really say is I heard the wind and the rain, but in the process of avoiding windows (besides it wasdark outside so you couldn't see anything) I can only say what I heard and maybe felt...I was sure it was just a matter of time before a window shattered and a tree limb impaled me (I was sleeping on the couch in the living room, surrounded by windows). Libby slept through the whole thing. It was hard to sleep with the wind blowing so hard, and I kept seeing flashes of the transformers blowing...so finally I grabbed a blanket and headed to my moms closet with Libby, I'm not going to lie, probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. I slept through most of the remainder of the hurricane. It was still pretty windy when I woke up in the morning though. When the sun came up I was slightly surprised to see my moms yard mostly unscathed.

So, being that maybe I am high maintence, I was not having the life with no ac, or tv, or real food...and all over the news (well, on the radio) it was being reported that it was going to be weeks before power would be fixed. So I made the decision that I was getting out of town and heading for Ft. Worth. Maybe the fact that I couldn't keep a cell phone call should have been a sign that was a bad idea. I called Jenn to search for ways for me to get there and I packed my things and set out on the road. I probably got 2-3 miles away before I was stopped in my tracks because water was covering the road. So I returned to my moms, and started my work of convincing her that even if we had to go to brenham or austin that we HAD to get a hotel, that I would die if we didn't leave. So we called my sister so she could start calling around to find open hotels...but nothing, we returned home defeated and I took an ambian and went to sleep.

Again when we woke up on sunday I was a little disheartened because not even a block away from my moms house power was running...but we were sweating it out. The only thing worse was the news constantly telling me that thankfully a cold front was coming through and would be here tomorrow. Really!? We had started hearing rumors of resturants opening and my mom needed to get gas, so we ventured out again meanwhile my sister found a hotel room in Round rock and it was decided that once we returned home we would turn around and make our way to Austin...when I noticed I had a voicemail...so I checked it (which I almost NEVER do)...and it was Johnny (he is my moms uncle, I guess my grand uncle, my grandmoms brother) he happens to live just down the street from me, and had journeyed out on his own and noticed that my apartments had power. So here I am in my bed with electricity and the ability to write random blogs.

Unfortunatly my apartment does not have water pressure...but I guess you can't have it all. I'm also now on lock down due to the curfew...what the crap, I didn't even have a curfew when I was in high school.