After Rita

Well, after eight hours of traffic and with only half a tank of gas and a momma kitty with serious diarrhea problems we decided we'd rather ride the storm out at home than at a shelter with hundreds of strangers worrying about our house and animals. So we came home. We had a great time! It wasn't all that bad. Really. Coco only has one baby. She never had any others so I guess it was just a one baby litter. I made chocolate cake. Empire of Dreams was on A&E (it's a Star Wars documentary) so we watched that and took it as a sign that we were supposed to stay. That put us in the mood for Star Wars. So we watched episode 4. Then we turned it to Most Haunted. My sister called and said she was watching it at school and thinking about us. My dad and I love watching that and making fun of the one guy Stewart that's a major chicken. Anyway, I diverse. We checked the news to see that Rita was still headed away from us and then the power went out. We decided that meant it was time to go to sleep. Yeah, just as the worst of the storm was coming, we went to sleep. I was really calm through the whole thing. It just felt that everything was going to be fine. I was with my parents who've been through Carla and Alicia and are experienced at surviving without modern conveniences. I slept on their bedroom floor on some blankets. There was only once that it sounded really scary. The floor vibrated a little. My parents were asleep and I was lying there thinking, hmmm that might not be good. Then I fell asleep. =) Woke up when my sister called at four in the morning to see how we were after the worst had past. We told her we were fine and then went back to sleep. You have to realize that in 72 hours all three of us averaged about 10 hours of sleep. And 5 of that was on Wednesday night, or I guess I should say Thursday morning since it was from 3-8 am that my mom and I slept while my dad had to go to work. Yeah, that kept us from leaving on Wednesday. His boss needs to be shot. My dad has to go in tonight, even though they have more than enough people there, because they'll dock his pay. They even told him he didn't have to come in. Grrrrrrrrrr. That's the port police chief for you. Idiot. All of them think so. Moving on. Mom and I will have a girl's night I guess. Oreos and milk!!! Yes we will have lots of fun. No major damage to report. Just some branches that need to be cleared from the yard. The power came back on about 1 pm today. Just as the nice breeze keeping us cool was starting to dye down. Isn't God's timing great?! I've recovered some of my lost sleep and am rather perky. Alright, I'm downright hyper! Now to have a major sugar overload. Bye for now!

We're gettin the heck outta here. New mommy and baby in tow and Hermoine. The others get to fend for themselves in our garage. I'm sure the house and cats will be ok. Gotta go and finnish backing up. Bye!

Rita

So now we are in the path of a major storm. My mom and I are busily getting everything together in the event that Rita heads directly for us. Then we're getting out. 50 miles or less. And tonight is the night my cat decides to have her kittens! Yes, so far she has one and it's black and white. We don't know if she'll have any others or how long that will take. She's still pretty big so maybe we'll have more. I have no idea how we're going to take care of them if we have to leave. I hope it heads south of us, no offense to those south but when a storm's headed your way you always hope it'll turn away from you. And there's just no way to get nine cats and kittens out of the way. They'll have to stay and deal with it. We're not overly worried. Our house has withstood Alicia and Carla with no flooding, and Alicia was a direct hit. So we're pretty confident the house will be ok. I'll keep everyone posted on if we're staying or bugging out. Gotta go now.

Katrina

Ok, so I'm in the middle of the president's national address to the nation and it has sent me thinking. I am not in any way trying to make light of this tragedy that is Katrina. It is truly horrible what has happened in New Orleans and other places that have been totally wiped off the globe. But this is not an unprecedented event people! Let us consider the 1900 storm of Galveston. Katrina pales in comparison to the devastation and loss of life of that storm. This storm still stands as the worst storm to ever hit the United States. We aren't talking hundreds of people dead, but thousands. 6,000 to be more precise. What total have we reached now with Katrina in New Orleans 400, 500, or so? I'm not sure about the exact number currently. No loss of life is acceptable, but in comparison Galveston certainly suffered more. And any low lying town, especially one below sea level should have taken steps far in advance to prevent flooding. And for everyone's information, the levy problem is nothing new and has been ignored by government since the 1920s. No one in government today was even alive then so if you're going to blame Bush, or Clinton, or whoever, then lets also blame JFK, Johnson, and FDR. Food for thought everyone. Galveston learned its lesson in 1900 and built a seawall and literally rose the level of the island several feet. And they did it without power tools, computers and other high tech equipment. Just mules, wagons, and shovels. So really, New Orleans citizens shouldn't worry too much. They'll have their city back to normal soon enough and safer no doubt. But really my heart goes out to those affected by the storm and I only bring up Galveston to say this isn't the worst of the worst, so lets count our blessings and try to learn from the past.

First Day

Well, yesterday my mother called me about 7:50 in the morning to let me know they needed a substitute immediately at her school. So I jumped out of bed to start hurriedly getting dressed. This was after all my first official subbing job. I managed to blow dry hair and brush teeth at the same time. I don't know how but I did. So I got there and was rushed to a classroom containing 13 four year olds. That's right, my first subbing assignment was with a room full of four year olds. There was a temporary person in there trying her best to keep them occupied until I got there. She and the secretary kept saying they didn't know how I would survive. Now with four year olds you can pretty well fake that you know what your doing even though you don't have a clue. Pretty soon I had the monsters somewhat under control. I felt like I didn't though, because the teacher next door with four year olds had her kids pretty quiet. I kept thinking that I was doing a horrible job. I had one kid crying constantly for no reason at all and another kid who just whined the whole time. And then one kid started saying the f word. And it was a Christian school! I had to get him to stop that as soon as possible. I could just see the principle walking in just as he was saying it. I told him he'd get his mouth washed out if he kept saying it and to never say it again. Imagine my surprise when the other teacher said I was more controlling than their normal teacher! And everyone kept saying they didn't know how I'd managed to survive. I mean really, yes four year olds can be a handful, but they're four! You're three times their size, about six times their age, and the adult! Above all you have to remember that they aren't little darlings at all. They're conniving little sneaks trying to pull the wool over your eyes with innocent faces, pouts, fake tears, hugs and I love yous. It's that simple. Don't I sound like a lovely person? But we got through the day. Although one girl at the end wanted her old teacher back and her mommy and I was mean. But I didn't let that bother me one bit. I picked her up, sat her in her chair, and told her to do her worksheet if she wanted to play with the other kids. It wasn't a difficult worksheet, all she had to do was color the rainbow and listen to the story about Noah's Ark. And then I came home and started fixing super. And now I have a lovely blister on my finger from hot grease sloshing out onto it. I hate frying things! That was yesterday. Sounds fun, doesn't it!

Day of Rest

Well, today is a day that I've decided not to do much at all. I am washing my laundry and considering tackling some dishes, but I'm not sure yet if I want to. I've finished The Silent Blade and now have gotten into The Spine of the World. And then my eyes started hurting so I had to give them a break. Which means soon I probably will be doing dishes just so they can rest. I should go upstairs and read so Hermoine can curl up with me. I call it our reading position. She loves it when I read so she can snuggle up and not be bothered for a while. Yesterday was quite stressful. I had to get the inspection sticker on my mom's car changed and I hate going to mechanics. I always feel like they think I'm an idiot because I'm a woman. On top of that I had to go to a 6 hour substitute teaching inservice type thing at 1:30 so I was nervous about that. I had to endure the interview thing there and I hate things like that. I don't care how much I do it, I don't like having to answer questions like "If you suspect a child is being abused, what would you do?" Your mind is going about a million miles a second trying to figure out what the person wants to hear, what you would actually do in such a situation and then figuring out how to make all your thoughts come out in a legible, intelligent response. AAHHH!! Fortunately the person interviewing me was my high school vice principal who adored me when I was there so he was very encouraging and seemed pleased with the answers I gave. It was weird being at my old high school preparing to teach in classrooms I was once a student in. I ran into another girl who was a couple years older than me and I was surprised she remembered me from our Theater Arts class we had together. Especially when we realized that it had been 7 years ago that we had that class! It was like a ten year reunion almost with all the people I knew. It's so weird. I don't know why. And I changed my mind and said that I would be willing to sub at the high school and middle school. I'm worried that they won't take me seriously, especially since most of them will be taller than I am. It sucks being only 5'2"! I don't know how that will turn out but as always I'll keep you all posted. I think I'll knock out some dishes now. Maybe...

The Jig is Up!!

Well, as the title implies, we've been caught! And we didn't even know it!! Apparently Hermoine was discovered some time ago by my father. He was a bit upset on Thursday and in his tirade he asked my mom how many cats we were hiding upstairs. Of course she tried to play innocent but eventually had to admit the truth. She didn't tell him that the cat had actually been there since July 3. But he said he'd known about it for about three weeks. Seeing as he hasn't said anything to us or insisted that she be thrown out, I guess Hermoine's place here is secured. As soon as she curls up with him and starts purring he'll be hooked. He's really a sucker for cats. Especially purring cats. In other news 4 hours of laundry duty at my grandmother's on Monday offered a plentiful amount of time to follow Drizzt through his adventures. I got about three hundred pages read. I now only have about 30 pages left in that long 1077 page book. Yea me! Time for bed now. My sister is home from school so I won't be bored for the next couple of days. I'm happy! Bye now!