Hurricane Irene Welcomes Me to Boston

My plans for this week have changed too many times to count.  First I was going to come to Boston on Wednesday to prepare to start work on Monday.  Now I'm not starting work until after Labor Day so I planned to move in on Sunday.  Then word of the hurricane came and we decided Saturday would be better.  But then my brother and sister both had to get to college on Saturday so we decided Friday would be better.   So here I am.

I am afraid of storms.  Most of you know that.  The rest of you will not be surprised to hear me start any sentence with, "I am afraid of..."  When I was little, in the summers I used to avoid watching the weather on TV.  If I did happen to hear that there was a threat of thunderstorms I would refuse to shower or go swimming in the lake.  During storms I would cry and sit on the floor in the middle of the room (to be as far as possible from windows or metal springs in sofas, of course).  I'm better with thunderstorms now, but I still get nervous about bigger storms like hurricanes and tornadoes.  Thankfully, living in New England, it's rarely something I have to consider.  But Irene has me in a mild panic.

I did some pre-move shopping and the water aisle at Target was almost completely sold out.  My friend and I got the last two packs of bottled water.  My number one mission when I got to Boston was to get to the grocery store.  Jake and I went early and got gallon jugs of water, canned soups, canned chili, canned vegetables, and some fruit.  All of this was pretty heavy and we live several blocks from the grocery store so we also bough a collapsable shopping cart to carry our food.  I didn't realize it wouldn't come assembled.  In New York we would have just had our groceries delivered, but alas, this is so not New York.

So, with his characteristic patience and surprising handiness, Jake put together our shopping cart in the parking lot of Shaw's.  As we wheeled a pantry worth of food home (I still feel like we don't have enough water) I felt like perhaps I was being a bit paranoid.  I said, "Part of me feels like a psycho for doing this, but part of me feels like a genius."  Jake replied, "Don't you think all psychos think that way at least some of the time?"

But the news has been doing such a good job at fear mongering/reporting.  Friends, family, politicians, even signs on the highway, are all telling me it could be serious.   York City has it's first mandatory evacuation ever.  Our old apartment is being evacuated and I met a girl in the laundry room today whose cousin's New York City wedding was cancelled because her parents were turned away at the New Jersey border and put on an evacuation route.

En route to my other hurricane chore, getting cash in case stores lose power and can't take credit cards, I got caught in a downpour.  Now I'm sitting in my living room which, in addition to a ton of moving boxes, now also contains my patio furniture.  Now I'm off to do my third load of laundry so that in case we lose water at least I'll have clean clothes.  Then I will likely try to distract myself by watching Project Runway (see post Summer TV: Project Runway) online and trying not to check weather.com.   Here's hoping for a safe weekend and not a week of eating cold canned goods in the dark!