i'd rather be fishing.
evacuation is a son of a bitch.
our (our = my house of 7 people) plan was to leave at around noon on sunday afternoon. pack up our cars the night before and get a full night of sleep to drive to lea's grandparents' summer house in sewanee, tennessee.
...not so much.
as we were all about to sit down to dinner on saturday evening, nagin gave his press briefing--at that point, gustav was still predicted to hit as a category 5 hurricane. nagin officially issued a mandatory evacuation, warned that the storm looked to be stronger than katrina, and that the levees were (STILL) not prepared to handle the storm surge that was expected. it was terrifying and sad, and kicked our asses into leaving as soon as possible.
we all packed up our respective cars. it's a weird weird task, to have to look at your belongings and decide what amongst them is important, necessary, or irreplacable enough to come with you. i packed a bag of clothes--things that are comfortable and worn often, that are "one of a kind," or that are for other reasons special to me. aside from clothes, i brought:
-rollerblades
-bike and bike rack
-the new running shoes i just bought
-ice skates
-a box of paper necessities--financially important shtuff, my passport, current and old journals, colored pencils and pens, an envelope of photos from kidhood and from college
-a few books: The Dharma Bums and the Girl in the Flammable Skirt as security blankets; World War Z as new reading material
-my camel back stuffed with dog supplies: food, the meds they're on in prep for heartworm treatment this tuesday, slip leashes, a few stuffed toys/rawhides as evacuation presents (for i am a pushov-ah)
-arrested devlopment on dvd
-bag o' toiletries
that's pretty much it.
the drive out was horrible. we packed until two in the morning, and then took off. kat and i were stuck in traffic for 6 or 7 hours just getting out of louisiana (fucking contraflow motherfucker). we watched the sunrise and od'ed on 5-hour energy drinks together. all in all, it took 14 hours to get to sewanee (twice as long as it should take). i bought my dog, martha, a cheeseburger for holding it down in the backseat.
i spent the next day with lea, katie, and matt (primarily) in a rented hotel room as refugees watching the news/weather channel. by the end of the day it looked like our city was holding up just fine. on came the 90210 marathon, out came the wine and beer.
the rest of the week at sewanee was a total hurri-cation. the house is in the woods, on the edge of a private swimming pond, with just a few other houses around. the dogs loved it. i took them on long off-leash walks and swimming with me every morning. they went on a run with me, which was a first. they went canoeing. oh, my fat babies.
i went with lea and a few others to hike around a local waterfall (Fall Creek Falls...yeah, ha). stood on the top corner, looking down on the falls and smoking a cigarette with lea and katie. went swimming in the cascades above the falls, which felt soooo good...
the housemates continued to be ridiculous, in the ways that they usually are.
we came back to the city last night, getting in at around 10:30pm. unpacked my car, sat with the dogs and the housemates for a little while, and headed off to bed. now i'm at work, where we have a total of 9 dogs staying with us (the city seems like it's in a state of breath-holding for ike).
can't help wondering, if we've come back just to do it all over again in a few days...
we can all hope not.
our (our = my house of 7 people) plan was to leave at around noon on sunday afternoon. pack up our cars the night before and get a full night of sleep to drive to lea's grandparents' summer house in sewanee, tennessee.
...not so much.
as we were all about to sit down to dinner on saturday evening, nagin gave his press briefing--at that point, gustav was still predicted to hit as a category 5 hurricane. nagin officially issued a mandatory evacuation, warned that the storm looked to be stronger than katrina, and that the levees were (STILL) not prepared to handle the storm surge that was expected. it was terrifying and sad, and kicked our asses into leaving as soon as possible.
we all packed up our respective cars. it's a weird weird task, to have to look at your belongings and decide what amongst them is important, necessary, or irreplacable enough to come with you. i packed a bag of clothes--things that are comfortable and worn often, that are "one of a kind," or that are for other reasons special to me. aside from clothes, i brought:
-rollerblades
-bike and bike rack
-the new running shoes i just bought
-ice skates
-a box of paper necessities--financially important shtuff, my passport, current and old journals, colored pencils and pens, an envelope of photos from kidhood and from college
-a few books: The Dharma Bums and the Girl in the Flammable Skirt as security blankets; World War Z as new reading material
-my camel back stuffed with dog supplies: food, the meds they're on in prep for heartworm treatment this tuesday, slip leashes, a few stuffed toys/rawhides as evacuation presents (for i am a pushov-ah)
-arrested devlopment on dvd
-bag o' toiletries
that's pretty much it.
the drive out was horrible. we packed until two in the morning, and then took off. kat and i were stuck in traffic for 6 or 7 hours just getting out of louisiana (fucking contraflow motherfucker). we watched the sunrise and od'ed on 5-hour energy drinks together. all in all, it took 14 hours to get to sewanee (twice as long as it should take). i bought my dog, martha, a cheeseburger for holding it down in the backseat.
i spent the next day with lea, katie, and matt (primarily) in a rented hotel room as refugees watching the news/weather channel. by the end of the day it looked like our city was holding up just fine. on came the 90210 marathon, out came the wine and beer.
the rest of the week at sewanee was a total hurri-cation. the house is in the woods, on the edge of a private swimming pond, with just a few other houses around. the dogs loved it. i took them on long off-leash walks and swimming with me every morning. they went on a run with me, which was a first. they went canoeing. oh, my fat babies.
i went with lea and a few others to hike around a local waterfall (Fall Creek Falls...yeah, ha). stood on the top corner, looking down on the falls and smoking a cigarette with lea and katie. went swimming in the cascades above the falls, which felt soooo good...
the housemates continued to be ridiculous, in the ways that they usually are.
we came back to the city last night, getting in at around 10:30pm. unpacked my car, sat with the dogs and the housemates for a little while, and headed off to bed. now i'm at work, where we have a total of 9 dogs staying with us (the city seems like it's in a state of breath-holding for ike).
can't help wondering, if we've come back just to do it all over again in a few days...
we can all hope not.