House Stressed

It sometimes seems like me and my home are one. It's modest, nothing to fancy. It gets by with the bare minimums. It dreams of being stylish and fashionable, but doesn't move outside its comfort zone.

It's no surprise that when my life seems to be spinning slightly out of control, my home does too. And when I realize how disorganized my home is, I literally feel physically sick. It plays on my mind, it haunts me. I have the impulse to shut down everything around me and focus on making my home organized again. Even though most of the disaster areas are behind closed doors, for me, the doors might as well be open. I see it, it know it's there and it stresses me out.

Enter Hurricane Sandy. While I am not a fan of the disaster she will likely cause, I am thankful to her for forcing me to slow down and take the opportunity to clean and to organize. I'm going to take full advantage of the time that I will have. Iv'e charged my dust buster and am ready to go!

The weather is starting to increase its intensity. But there is to feeling of impending doom. The parking lot is full and it seems as though everyone has prepared and is safes inside. The winds are getting stronger. But it looks like the storm will hit behind us so it will not be hitting our windows directly. As a precaution though, we have taped our windows. some immediate surrounding areas have been evacuated. For us, flooding is not a concern. However, the flooding in the area will prevent us from going too far.

We are as ready as we can be living in an apartment, but I keep feeling like there's more I should be doing.

Hunkered Down

I spent the better part of yesterday and early this morning preparing for Hurricane Sandy. Being in New Jersey, Sandy is has her sights set to hit us dead-on. I bought as much non-perishable foods as I could and we'll plan to consume the food in the freezer and refrigerator first in the event we lose power. We are fortunate to have a gas stove and can at least cook stove top and in the oven. So, I'll cook everything I possibly can to use up my eggs, cheese and any thing else i can make into something non-perishable.

We have soups, bread, bagels, granola bars, muffins, fruit, pasta and plenty of bottled water. We have cash. We have brought all of our balcony furniture in and have parked away from trees and telephone poles. The laundry is done. We have candles and flashlights and are charging every electronic device we have.

I have brought crayons and coloring books to keep our son occupied. And I will do as much organizing and cleaning as I can.

We made it through Hurricane Irene last year pretty unscathed. Some surrounding areas were not so lucky. However, this storm seems to be much worse and the high winds and water surges are a great concern. We live in a second floor apartment and are located at one of the highest points in our town, so my home flooding is of little concern. I am worried about being without power for a few days.

To all my friends in the tri-state area. If you have not yet begun to prepare, you have a very small window to do so. Stores are very scarce in the way of bread, water, batteries and other supplies. Bring in your Halloween decorations and patio furniture, tape windows and move beds away from windows,  charge phones and make sure you have food. Even if the storm does not hit you too hard, you will have at least been prepared for the worst. Once Sandy hits, she will hand around for awhile. Be prepared and remain indoors.

It is my intention to blog through the storm as i did last year, however, in the event of a power outage, I will not be able to post. I will go back to my old paper and pen and post a blog when we have power again.

I wish all my friends and family luck in the storm. Stay safe.