Hurricane Rita .. Bah, I would have rather had a margarita..
So here it is.. the obligatory Post-Hurricane Rita Update. I guess I shall go a day by day as it seems each day was filled with it's own "hurry up where all gonna die" quality.
Wednesday..
Wendy (my boss) comes in, in a rush.. with hurricane supplies and other random things. She says we need to move stuff around to prepare.. BUT I use most of my hours packing these STUPID ass packages for PR people in New York. She wants it to be a present SO, i have to pack them.. wrap them and then pack the "presents again. God, she's a schmuck. But whatever I do it. I don't even think I mentioned the fact that I might have to apply for unemployment next week. She mentioned somethign earlier in the week that involved me getting unemployment and working parttime under the table for her. *shrug* i dunno..we'll have to see about all of that though. Anyway, after i do all that were moving crap around, unplugging thigns and moving stuff off the floor. My Monday will probably involve a whole half a day of putting shit back where it needs to be. Oh yah, so i go to deliver the UPS packages at the UPS store only to find out that they are not taking packages because they are cutting services until Monday or Tuesday because it is a catagory 5 storm. GREAT.. JUST GREAT. All that time wasted just for them NOT to take the damn packages.. shoot me in the foot why don't you. But whatever i take the packages back and leave them in the office. I'm not taking them. I have to think about the crap i'm taking with me. Oh and I talk to my dad. He's planning on staying with GiGi. Giovanna will be with her mom and as far as I know my friends are spreading out around Texas. Crazyness
Thursday..
Rudy leaves to work for a couple of hours in the morning. Apparently they had to sand bag around the office. While he's at work I'm packing.. deciding what will go and what wont. By the time he gets here i'm pretty much finished. Only clothes to dump into the suitcases. We are on the road to dallas by 10:30. We think we are going to be slick to beat the crowds and take side roads upu ntil 1960. Only to realize that well, we aren't the only people to think that. We hear on the radio that they are going to open up Contraflow up at 1488 which is right before conroe. We decide at Spring-Stuebnor that we are going to get on the freeway... that was at about erm.. 3:00. We don't get to conroe till about 8:30.. by this time Rudy and I are at each other's throats. The heat, traffic, and just plain fustration were geting to us. Oh, and we were hearing and seeing people running out of gas so we had turned off the a/c around noon. So from noon to 8:30 we had no a/c... it sucked I tell you. By 6:30 i had wanted to turn around.. Rudy on the other hand wanted to get out. We argued for like an 2 hours.. going between the cold shoulder routine to shouting matches in which other people in cars around us i'm sure heard. The only reason we even did turn around because he had talked to Dave and he said he thought we should turn around. Why did he listen to dave and not to me?? I dont' know. Only thing i even think about all of that is THANK FREAKING GOD WE DID TURN AROUND. We wouldn't have enough gas to get all the way to dallas with the gas we had left... we would have been stuck in some god forsaken little Texas town in some stupid shelter with no one we knew. So whatever, We end up going to Amanda B's house. They live in a big brick house so we figure it should be ok for the most part....While dirivng back we notice how empty parts of the city look. Rudy compared it to Christmas day. Which i think was a pretty good comparision. We get to amanda and what do we do? WE RUN TO THE RESTROOMS!! Hahaha.. we hadn't been able to use the rest room for I dunno 10 hours? So yah.. we had to go. LOL. Amanda warmed up some left over spagetti, we talked for a while, and then went to bed. We slept on the floor of Amanda's TV room which was nice because it was like we had our own room. Oh and I had talked to my family in Dallas. Apparently there were 25 people from houston in between 2 houses. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have stayed there.
Friday...
We wake up and Rudy is called in for hurricane preperation duty. He helps Amanda's dad Pete cut down branches of trees and move crap around in the front yard. Amanda, Lindsay (amanda's sister), Randi (amanda's mom), and I sit on the front yard looking at them work.. yah, it was so hard sitting there laughing at them. Hah. :) Time passes and it's evening quick. The wind was pretty brisk all day long but by 6:00 you could tell something was about to go down. The wierdest part though was when the sky turned purple. I swear it was purple clouds. Prolly had something to do with the sun setting but it looked really wierd. The highlight of the evening though was when a tree branch fell on Matthew (Lindsay's Boyfriend's)truck. He seems kinda like an ass I think but, whatever. Oh and the animals in the house were freaking OUT..but i think that's just animal storm intution or something though. And the people across the street loss power at around 8:00 we didnt lose power once though. Go US!!! We are in bed by 11:30 but at 3:00 I am awakened by noisy wind out side. Stuff is hitting the roof and at times shaking the windows. No one else is awake though. Just Rudy and I.. we go down stairs and go out side on the porch.. the wind is blowing pretty damn hard and the trees are dropping branches left and right. I stay out there for a minute r two utnil a REALLY REALLY REALLY strong wind comes by and scares the crap out of me. we go back inside and try to go back to bed. it's hard though. Those noises are keeping me awake. I do end up falling a sleep though prolly around 4:00.
Saturday...
Wake up to everyone around the tv.. nothing is as bad as it could have been. The worse thing seems to be the no electricity thing in some parts of town and we don't know if we have any in our apartment or not. We end up having breakfast (amanda made pancakes - woo)and packing up. We are out of there by 11:00 and back in our apartment by 11:30. And guess what? Everything was GREAAT. Still had electricty and no broken windows. We ended up on house checking duty though. Went by Ruben's and Rudy's moms house. Ruben's house was fine and so was rudy's moms.. the only thing with rudy's moms though was that they didn't have any electricity. On our way back from that we find a place selling gas. We get in line. A cop comes up to us and says at northfreeway and N. main there is a chevron and they have gas with no lines. Of course we go only to find that there is no damn Chevron there!! We were bamboozled!!! That hour wait for nothing. Boo. We did however find a mc donalds though. Waited in line and were happy as clams to go home with hot food. Stayed home the rest of the day and I put up everything. was more than happy to do it though as it ment we still had stuff!!!!
Sunday...
And now it's Sunday.. We found gas and grocries this morning. Which of course is a good thing. Good Times all around. Now it's all back to normal.. Have to find a job and figure out about stupid unemployment crap.
PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!!!!
Wednesday..
Wendy (my boss) comes in, in a rush.. with hurricane supplies and other random things. She says we need to move stuff around to prepare.. BUT I use most of my hours packing these STUPID ass packages for PR people in New York. She wants it to be a present SO, i have to pack them.. wrap them and then pack the "presents again. God, she's a schmuck. But whatever I do it. I don't even think I mentioned the fact that I might have to apply for unemployment next week. She mentioned somethign earlier in the week that involved me getting unemployment and working parttime under the table for her. *shrug* i dunno..we'll have to see about all of that though. Anyway, after i do all that were moving crap around, unplugging thigns and moving stuff off the floor. My Monday will probably involve a whole half a day of putting shit back where it needs to be. Oh yah, so i go to deliver the UPS packages at the UPS store only to find out that they are not taking packages because they are cutting services until Monday or Tuesday because it is a catagory 5 storm. GREAT.. JUST GREAT. All that time wasted just for them NOT to take the damn packages.. shoot me in the foot why don't you. But whatever i take the packages back and leave them in the office. I'm not taking them. I have to think about the crap i'm taking with me. Oh and I talk to my dad. He's planning on staying with GiGi. Giovanna will be with her mom and as far as I know my friends are spreading out around Texas. Crazyness
Thursday..
Rudy leaves to work for a couple of hours in the morning. Apparently they had to sand bag around the office. While he's at work I'm packing.. deciding what will go and what wont. By the time he gets here i'm pretty much finished. Only clothes to dump into the suitcases. We are on the road to dallas by 10:30. We think we are going to be slick to beat the crowds and take side roads upu ntil 1960. Only to realize that well, we aren't the only people to think that. We hear on the radio that they are going to open up Contraflow up at 1488 which is right before conroe. We decide at Spring-Stuebnor that we are going to get on the freeway... that was at about erm.. 3:00. We don't get to conroe till about 8:30.. by this time Rudy and I are at each other's throats. The heat, traffic, and just plain fustration were geting to us. Oh, and we were hearing and seeing people running out of gas so we had turned off the a/c around noon. So from noon to 8:30 we had no a/c... it sucked I tell you. By 6:30 i had wanted to turn around.. Rudy on the other hand wanted to get out. We argued for like an 2 hours.. going between the cold shoulder routine to shouting matches in which other people in cars around us i'm sure heard. The only reason we even did turn around because he had talked to Dave and he said he thought we should turn around. Why did he listen to dave and not to me?? I dont' know. Only thing i even think about all of that is THANK FREAKING GOD WE DID TURN AROUND. We wouldn't have enough gas to get all the way to dallas with the gas we had left... we would have been stuck in some god forsaken little Texas town in some stupid shelter with no one we knew. So whatever, We end up going to Amanda B's house. They live in a big brick house so we figure it should be ok for the most part....While dirivng back we notice how empty parts of the city look. Rudy compared it to Christmas day. Which i think was a pretty good comparision. We get to amanda and what do we do? WE RUN TO THE RESTROOMS!! Hahaha.. we hadn't been able to use the rest room for I dunno 10 hours? So yah.. we had to go. LOL. Amanda warmed up some left over spagetti, we talked for a while, and then went to bed. We slept on the floor of Amanda's TV room which was nice because it was like we had our own room. Oh and I had talked to my family in Dallas. Apparently there were 25 people from houston in between 2 houses. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have stayed there.
Friday...
We wake up and Rudy is called in for hurricane preperation duty. He helps Amanda's dad Pete cut down branches of trees and move crap around in the front yard. Amanda, Lindsay (amanda's sister), Randi (amanda's mom), and I sit on the front yard looking at them work.. yah, it was so hard sitting there laughing at them. Hah. :) Time passes and it's evening quick. The wind was pretty brisk all day long but by 6:00 you could tell something was about to go down. The wierdest part though was when the sky turned purple. I swear it was purple clouds. Prolly had something to do with the sun setting but it looked really wierd. The highlight of the evening though was when a tree branch fell on Matthew (Lindsay's Boyfriend's)truck. He seems kinda like an ass I think but, whatever. Oh and the animals in the house were freaking OUT..but i think that's just animal storm intution or something though. And the people across the street loss power at around 8:00 we didnt lose power once though. Go US!!! We are in bed by 11:30 but at 3:00 I am awakened by noisy wind out side. Stuff is hitting the roof and at times shaking the windows. No one else is awake though. Just Rudy and I.. we go down stairs and go out side on the porch.. the wind is blowing pretty damn hard and the trees are dropping branches left and right. I stay out there for a minute r two utnil a REALLY REALLY REALLY strong wind comes by and scares the crap out of me. we go back inside and try to go back to bed. it's hard though. Those noises are keeping me awake. I do end up falling a sleep though prolly around 4:00.
Saturday...
Wake up to everyone around the tv.. nothing is as bad as it could have been. The worse thing seems to be the no electricity thing in some parts of town and we don't know if we have any in our apartment or not. We end up having breakfast (amanda made pancakes - woo)and packing up. We are out of there by 11:00 and back in our apartment by 11:30. And guess what? Everything was GREAAT. Still had electricty and no broken windows. We ended up on house checking duty though. Went by Ruben's and Rudy's moms house. Ruben's house was fine and so was rudy's moms.. the only thing with rudy's moms though was that they didn't have any electricity. On our way back from that we find a place selling gas. We get in line. A cop comes up to us and says at northfreeway and N. main there is a chevron and they have gas with no lines. Of course we go only to find that there is no damn Chevron there!! We were bamboozled!!! That hour wait for nothing. Boo. We did however find a mc donalds though. Waited in line and were happy as clams to go home with hot food. Stayed home the rest of the day and I put up everything. was more than happy to do it though as it ment we still had stuff!!!!
Sunday...
And now it's Sunday.. We found gas and grocries this morning. Which of course is a good thing. Good Times all around. Now it's all back to normal.. Have to find a job and figure out about stupid unemployment crap.
PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!!!!
