He can settle any sea / But it doesn't mean He will It's amazing how life can be so crazy that you can barely stand it, and are stressing about every little thing... and one more thing happens (like, say, you have to evacuate the city because you're pregnant and they locked the freakin' hospital doors)... and suddenly, for some reason, everything is ok. I mean, everything is on its head, but suddenly I'm ok with it.
So here's what happened. My dad was in the hospital, I was stressing about going home, and then my Granny broke her hip and went into the hospital. I was pretty stressed about everything, and just barely managing to hold it together. About an hour after I heard about my Granny (this was Wednesday night)... They announced the evacuation orders for my county, excluding Pearland itself. After some looking, I found out that our "voluntary" evacuation for Ike meant (among other things) that the hospitals were locking their doors. So, Chad and I decided to leave, with no great idea where we were going to go. I slept that night, drove to my office to grab my computer, and spent the rest of the day trying to help Chad get the house ready to leave. We left about 5pm, after boarding most of the windows, and packing the animals, our photos, and enough clothes to last us through Sunday.
Monitoring the traffic leaving Houston, everything to the north and west was close to gridlocked. So... we headed east down I-10. Other than two pretty serious traffic jams due to accidents (slowing us an hour each time), the traffic wasn't that bad at all. Although it was extremely difficult to find a drive through place that wasn't closed and boarded up.
We started looking for a hotel room in Baton Rouge, which was a lost cause, really. We headed north up I-55, and when we got to Jackson without finding a hotel, we gave up. Chad and I took turns driving and sleeping, and we made it into Southaven about 6am on Friday morning. Crazy stuff.
Friday, we slept a little, ate Abner's, then went to the hospital so that some people Chad's mom works with could give me an ultrasound, which was awesome. They did both 2d and 3d ultrasounds, and got some great pictures of the little one moving about, sucking its thumb, and being difficult by covering its face. It was really cool, and made the trip pretty worthwhile.
Saturday, we got up early and drive to Huntsville, and visited both my Dad and my Granny. We had a good visit, and Daddy seem to be doing a little better. He's walking without a cane, and he was really glad to see us (and the baby). That night, we headed back to Southaven, intending to leave for home in the morning. But once we arrive in Southaven, we discovered that we could not go home. I-10 was blocked in places, and the authorities told us to stay where we were. We knew Pearland was hit kind of hard (friends lost a great deal of their roof), but that our house was at least intact, and not leaking through the roof.
So we sat back and tried to enjoy the "vacation". Each day, we made plans to come home the next day... but between the roads and the authorities, we didn't get to come home until Thursday. I ended up working remotely some, to keep from getting to far behind, but JSC was closed the entire week.
When we got home, we saw first hand how our house fared... we lost our fence (half the neighborhood did as well), and our shed (with the grill and everything in it), and (we discovered later) a little water got in around the windows on the back of the house. This may mean replacing all the windows and the back door, and replacing all or part of the drywall/insulation in the bedroom (and maybe part of the carpet). But overall, we didn't fare too bad. We have power, water, and gas, so we're all good. We even have groceries at the store, finally.
Traffic, however, sucks. My 45 minute commute has morphed into a 2 hour commute. But since that's my biggest complaint, besides finding contractors to fix the house, I can totally survive.
And I'm far less stressed about everything else, and more centered, which makes entirely no logical sense. But I'm enjoying it, while it lasts. :-)
Sometimes He calms the storm With a whispered peace be still He can settle any sea But it doesn't mean He will Sometimes He holds us close And lets the wind and waves go wild Sometimes He calms the storm And other times He calms His child ~Sometimes He Calms the Storm, Scott Krippayne
Cold! So... it's currently 13 degrees colder here than in Houston. In case you wondered. It actually feels really really really cold. Like, super-cold. I might have to brave Target/Walmart tonight or tomorrow to buy more socks (silly me, I brought mostly sandels, and not enough socks to wear boots everyday).
Otherwise, things are cool. We have something along the lines of 6 christmas celebrations/gift exchanges left. I think I'm oging to be christmased out by the end of it, but I suppose that's the way it works. :-)
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues / in the middle of the pouring rain Well... it was raining. When we got here, between 1 and 2am on Friday morning.
And now it's kinda cold (as in, it's colder here than at home in Houston). But right now, I'm just thankful that I'm back in the land of Sweet Tea, Memphis Style BBQ, and Abner's Chicken. I mean, really, what more could a woman ask for (besides immunity to eat all of those things without gaining weight)?
Speaking of which... on my way to eat ribs today, got to ride in Michael's 350-Z... it's pretty sweet. But kinda small. :-) Also got to play a Wii, at someone else's house. And it was fun, but (as is typical for video games) I suck at it.
Also... fighting with one of Amazon's toy shops atm... ordered a black knight for Matt, had it shipped to him... but funny enough, when it got there, it wasn't a black knight, but a "Fun with your dog" science kit. I called them... the shop is closed from Dec 21 to Jan 8. I am not amused by this. Matt, however, is.
Anyway. Still no real info about what is going on in Huntsville... other than that we'll be busy with family on the night of the 26th and the morning of the 27th. I'll post more, when I know more, I guess.
Ran to Huntsville for like, 30-something hours. Saw my sister graduate. And came home. (Also saw David and Nichole for like, 20 minutes... the only thing we chose to do all weekend) :)
Then spent a Saturday at Sixflags (while trying not to die of the worst head cold evar). Had an ok time, ate a corn dog (yay for corn dogs), and some cotton candy (but not as much as I wanted).
Friday, I'm going to a conference on Human Factors at Rice. The nSaturday we're going to Memphis, and we'll be ther until sometime Monday.
Rediscovered facebook. it is teh awesome. Found lots of old high school friends (and middle school friends, and elementary school friends)... having a good time messaging back and forth with them. Also re-connected with some college friends (or at least let them know I was still alive). Peer pressured Chad into being on facebook... working on some other people. :-)
I need more sleep, as usual, and more hours in the day.
Weekend Happenings So lots of stuff happened this weekend, which is interesting because nothing really happened this weekend...
We went to Memphis. And Chelsea turned 18. And we went out to eat... at which time Chad panicked his mother for like, 30 seconds, which was funny. We hung out with Brian, and watched Sky High (good), and ate out, and returned an iPod in hopes of getting a nano, only to discover that there are no Nanos anywhere in the south. And we played poker (and I won), and no one did any homework, really... And we visited with Krys and Manda, and ofught with the credit union, and brought home a cat who was living under Chad's mustang.
The cat has no name, yet. But we're working on that.
In other happy news, I wrote a lab for the class I'm teaching, and my instructor liked it a lot and -mail it to Dr. Reese, who used to teach the class before she was promoted to dean of education (or something like that), and she really liked it. And told me so. Yay.
And in sad news, we returned the Bose system, because it wouldn't play Indiana Jones. And wouldn't work with our current av devices, such as the playstation, or the media center. And htere was a part to mek it work, but it cost another $200, and if we installed it the system would no longer work with the TV. So we might get speakers, eventually, or something, but no Bose for us right now.
Blah. Sorry I disappeared for a couple of days. Things have been wild here. I went to Memphis for the weekend, came back on Tuesday... then Chad and I tried to make wedding plans and reservations and stuff here...
And now I'm tired. I haven't had time to sit down in like, three days. I haven't spoken to very many people (except a couple of very short im conversations)... I haven't even had that much to say to my family. I've just done wedding stuff.
So. I'm going to bed early tonight. And going out shopping for shoes and stuff like that with my mother tomorrow. Yay.
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
