I Don't Like Ike!

OK, OK!!! I take back what I said about Tropical Storm Edouard. Turns out, Hurricane Ike is for real. I especially enjoy how the hurricane takes up the ENTIRE Gulf of Mexico in the satellite to the left. Nice.

I wasn't scared until today. I have been so busy with school that I seriously don't watch TV anymore. I did not even KNOW that there was a hurricane coming until Thursday morning as I drove to work and listened to the radio! I'm grateful that the kids and I were shielded from the chaos that was Thursday. I heard there were two hour lines at the grocery and the gas stations. School went on as usual. We found out around noon that school was cancelled for Friday. An immense cheer went up from the kids(YAY! Devastation!) Oh well, I can't blame them. I was secretly excited, too. I kind of like drama.

So... Brent and I decided to stay in Houston for a number of reasons... we live in a concrete and brick high rise on the 7th floor and our cars are on the 5th floor. Not worried about flooding. We do have floor to ceiling windows, but they face North. Also, the windows are "tempered" and the building assured us there was no risk. We took everything off our patio. To be safe, we are sleeping in our guest bedroom tonight because our master bedroom has the aforementioned floor to ceiling windows. As much as I'd like to wake up with shards of glass in my bed, I decided the windowless guest room is where I'd rather be.

Like I said, I really wasn't scared until today. I was busy yesterday, and Brent and I decided to go out to dinner since we knew we wouldn't have THAT luxury for a while. So this morning (which was beautiful, by the way!), I decided to venture out to the grocery store that I knew would be open. Guess again. As I drove to the store, I was like, "Oh crap!" Every store along the way was boarded up and deserted. I was, of course, planning on going to Whole Foods to buy shrimp, steak, and maybe some almond butter. We might as well eat well!!! Whole Foods was CLOSED. At that point, I admit, I started to panic a bit. Every single gas station was out of gas and NOTHING was open. So I decided to check out my tried and true - Kroger. Thank God Kroger was open!! At least they learned their lesson from Rita and they had plenty of water, bread, and peanut butter. But everything else was pretty slim pickings. The store was packed, and everyone was very hurried and stressed. At that point, I started shaking. Seriously! I was really like, "What is going on?!" It was a bit surreal. Julia called me to check up, and I was just about to freak out!

Thankfully, I got some food, and headed home. We have been "hunkered down" for the day. I can only watch news for 5 minutes at a time. It's too much. I told Brent that it's just hard to know what's real and what's hype. The newscasters LOVE hype. It's like "the boy who cried wolf". What is really dangerous and what is not? Apparently, people in Galveston face "certain death". That's some strong word choice! The highlight of my day was finishing a whole book (to take my mind off the weirdness) and doing 3 loads of laundry.

Here is a picture of downtown from our living room about 30 minutes ago. And a picture of Blazer tracking the storm and protecting us.

Update: While I was writing this blog post.... Brent decided to take Blazer out for the last time. While he was gone, THE POWER WENT OFF! I temporarily lost my mind. I was just envisioning them stuck in an elevator!! I grabbed a flashlight and ran down the hall yelling "Brent!" like a crazy person. I ran to the elevators and yelled to the crack, "BRENT!" I was seriously freaking out. Of all the times to go in the elevator!!! A minute later, the power came back on. The elevators started working again. I stood by the elevators, crying, waiting for them to come back. Finally, they did. They were outside when the power went out. I don't like this!

So I'm going to cook dinner quickly before the power goes out again. We're pretty certain the power will be out for most of the night. Awesome. So, we're OK. Don't freak (like me) if you can't reach us. We're in a safe place. We may not have Internet, so I'll update you as soon as I can.

I heart you , Houston... I think.