We've been watching Hurricane Irma for weeks. The forecast looked like it was going to head straight for us and we have been busy getting ready and making evacuation plans.
My husband wanted to evacuate to New Jersey. Damn New Jersey. I've been having to hear about New Jersey a lot lately. I don't know what his obsession is. Last month he was like, "We should take a long weekend and go up to New Jersey."
I was like:
"Ummmmm.....YOU can take a long weekend and go up to New Jersey. If I'm taking a long weekend to go somewhere, I'm going somewhere good."
I grew up in New Jersey, certainly there are people I love in New Jersey but Jersey doesn't feel like home to me. I don't really have great memories of being there. I have little desire to go. We live in Charleston, South Carolina - people should just come visit us.
Anyway, when it looked like the storm was coming towards us, he was so excited. "We can go to Jersey and it will be awesome!" I prayed hard for the storm not to hit us - to spare our beautiful city but also to prevent me from having to go to New Jersey.
It did turn but we still were expecting strong wind and rain so I started my hurricane prep. I went to the store and got all of our supplies. I purchased non-perishable food. Disgusting stuff that I would never ordinarily eat. We might lose power, but at least we'll have diarrhea, I thought. I was just throwing things in my cart, not looking at the prices - I spent hundred of dollars. Uggggh!
The storm was approaching, there was a full moon last week too and things just didn't feel RIGHT. I felt like the whole world was off-kilter and I couldn't put my finger on why.
My youngest has been especially grumpy. Having flip outs, being unreasonable and just not pleasant to be around. More so than usual.
My husband was also really grumpy and ornery. I think living with three women has slowly begun to wear on him. Three weeks out of the month we exist in PMS land- a place with lots of chocolate, irrational outbursts and crying fits. This is him at all times:
Last week was especially hard. He laid down in bed and looked at me seriously and said, "I'm considering becoming a dead beat dad." I laughed. I get it.
My oldest has been not herself either. I got a text message from her on Tuesday, an hour after I dropped her off at school. MOM, PLEASE COME. I NEED TO TALK TO YOU NOW. I tried to text her but she never texted me back. So I did. I went. I'm THAT mom. I signed her out of school. You have to give a reason to the front desk. I didn't have a legitimate reason. I leaned in and whispered, "My daughter is having a female emergency. I'll bring her back in a little while." I wasn't lying, per se. She is female and it could have been an emergency.
I watched her come down the hallway and the look on her face told me that she was upset about something. She hadn't been crying but she was bothered. We sat down in and car. "Let's grab Starbucks- you have half an hour."
I drove to Starbucks and ordered us coffees and she told me about some middle school drama that was bothering her. I listened. The thing about adolescents is that they lack life experience and perspective. Everything seems so BIG, therefore they have very little chill. I get it - I've been there. We all have.
I parked the car and we sipped our coffee and I commiserated with her. "You are going to have situations in life that are like this hurricane. You know the storm is coming and there is nothing you can do to stop it. All you can do is prepare the best you can, let the storm come and when it's over you pick up the pieces and start over again. You know what I'm saying?" Score hurricane-metaphor-life-advice.
She seemed better after a while. I'm not sure if it was my "everything-will-be-okay" pep-talk or the coffee. "I don't know. I just feel like everything and everyone is so WEIRD right now,"she said.
I had this deep down feeling that the world was off-kilter and she could feel it too.
The storm did come. We did our best to prepare. We had some downed tree limbs and lost power for a few hours but we fared pretty well. We took the kids to a Chinese buffet after the wind and rain died down. We got lucky, we were spared.
Hopefully life can return to normal now - if there even is such a thing.
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