Tut, Tut, Looks Like Rain...

Perhaps you heard that there was a storm along the East Coast this weekend...

As you may recall, Nathan left for a month-long deployment early Saturday morning. I dropped him off on base & settled in to weather the storm alone.

I'd like to recap for you my first experience with a hurricane. Er, a tropical storm. Er, lots of rain. This weekend, I:

• Assaulted my neighbors with questions about flooding, power outages, etc., finally determining that I'd probably not evacuate
  
  
• Duct-taped X's over my windows because I heard somewhere that it can help prevent flying shards of glass if the windows break
  
  
  
• Sent a barrage of embarrassingly panicky tweets
  
  
• Decided that if my water/power went out & I needed to use the facilities, I could use the giant, empty cat litter tub I was about to throw in the recycling bin, & neutralize it with some clean litter. HURRICANE MACGYVER, I know.
  
  
• Put together a cat-on-the-road kit in case I needed to grab my furry little man & make a run for it. Traveling with a cat sounded like so much fun...
  
  
  
• Filled the bathtub with cold water because, um, you're supposed to
  
  
• Remembered that I have 21 small bottles of liquor in the apartment, which I wanted to send to my cousin for her 21st birthday until I realized that's illegal. Storm rations!
  
  
  
• Charged every piece of technology I own, assuming three laptops & an iPad could keep my iPhone charged for a damn long time
  
  
• Sent a barrage of embarrassingly panicky tweets
  
  
• Transferred valuables & photo albums into large plastic tubs placed atop my kitchen table
  
  
  
• Packed an "in case" bag with far too many pairs of socks & no pairs of pants
  
  
• Moved both cars to a less tree-filled section of the parking lot
  
  
• Sent a barrage of embarrassingly panicky tweets
  
  
• Assembled all of my dry & canned foods into an easy-to-grab duffel, including but not limited to: fruit snacks, trail mix, NutriGrain bars,Veggie Sticks, dried fruit, chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds, KIND bars & canned peaches
  
  
  
• Showered three times, in case we lost power & each time was the last time for God-knows-how-long
  
  
• Slept for a whopping 10 hours & woke up at 9:30am to an average rainstorm, so I canceled my hotel reservation
  
  
• Watched a handful of terrible movies, including "Life As We Know It," "Revenge of the Bridesmaids," "Gothika" & "Sorority Wars"
  
  
• Rocked pajamas & no makeup all weekend long
  
  
  

In the end, all my precautions were for naught. The storm passed Portsmouth almost entirely, providing us nothing more than strong rain & weak winds. Know what's funny? The power went out at the Raddison where I had reservations, as well as with the inland friends I almost stayed with!


But you'll never hear me complain about a weekend that looks like this:


How did you fare during the storm? Everybody OK out there?