Goodnight Irene

Twas the night before Irene, and all through our house...

Wouldn't it be cute if I had put together a full on hurricane rhyme?  Alas, I did not.  After braving the grocery store (Look, I usually shop on the weekend, so I actually needed to go.  It wasn't storm panic, it was "we're out of food for even normal conditions") so after that, I have been too exhausted to be creative. 

Under normal circumstances I am a super shopper.  I put together a list after going through the circulars, I match sales to coupons, I head out with my list, coupons, and even my coupon binder.  It's really quite a talent.  You can go ahead and be jealous of my mad-grocery shopping skills.  However, today was not normal. 

Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that the grocery stores were ridiculous.  Lines were 20 people deep, water was sold out, it was chaos.  FANTASTIC!  I shop on the weekends, so I knew right away I was pretty screwed.  I didn't want to wait until my husband got home from work today when it would be worse, so I planned to take both of my boys with me after a trip to my 4 year old's school this morning.  WHY?!?!  I mean, really, the baby doesn't need to eat does he, nor do the cats... 

The classroom visit started at 11AM, so that put us at the market around 11:30, just before lunch & the baby's nap.  So I broke 2 rules right there, shopping with a hungry and tired baby.  But, he'd be napping until it was too late and the crowds would be worse, so I continued on.  We got through pretty well.  There were a ton of retirees there who were just browsing along like it was a Sunday afternoon drive, going as slow as can be, blocking the aisles as they chatted with each other.  It was sometimes hard to get around, and they weren't about to move to the side to a gal pass.  Lucky for me, I was getting graham crackers, and that kept the boys happy.  My 4 year old got a slice of cheese at the deli, and he dropped it moments later.  That is when things really took a turn for the worse.

I thought we were lucky, because I found a line with only 2 people in front of me.  Now, I noticed the woman in front of me with a bunch of papers, and she was looking at a WIC check, but she only had a few things compared to everyone else, so I thought the extra minute that would take would be no big deal.  And I certainly do not have a problem with people using WIC, everyone needs food.  I did NOT anticipate her waiting until I started loading the conveyor behind her to start dividing her groceries into 5... 5! different transactions.  Then the belt stopped moving.  After about 15 minutes, the baby started to lose his cool.  He burst into tears, bit me, and tried to throw himself out of the shopping cart over and over again.  After 5 minutes of listening to baby panic, my 4 year old started to get overly anxious, and started pacing and climbing on the cart, and shaking the cart.  It quickly had become chaos.  I wanted to bite that lady in front of me.  I think it's only fair since she made an already tense, chaotic, "preparing for an emergency" environment back up even worse by making her order as difficult as possible, which resulted in my kid biting me.  I have a hard time thinking there was no other way for her to handle that. I have never experienced that before. I mean she even paid separately for a candy bar.  UGH! 

When we got home, I was wiped out from my kids melting down.  So any chance of a cutesy hurricane rhyme, limerick, or even a haiku is non-existent. 

We are ready for the hurricane, though.  My husband put together an emergency kit a few years ago, and he keeps it updated.  We also tend to have a well stocked pantry for those times we really can't get to the store or for emergencies.  We just prefer not to live completely off of that, hence the trip today.  We also have a gas stove, and gas grill, so cooking is not an issue.  We have plenty to do here, and we just plan on a cozy weekend inside with the boys.  My son says we are having a "hurricane" party.

My biggest fear?  Losing electricity so that I do not have my AC!!!  I love my climate control!

To all my friends and family in Irene's path, stay dry, stay safe, and enjoy some quiet time at home or on a forced vacation away from home.  It is what it is.