Next up: Plague of Locusts!

I have survived 2 separate natural disasters in one week: an earthquake and a hurricane! First up, there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia last Tuesday that was felt all the way up in New York. So we definitely felt it in Baltimore. I was at work, talking with some coworkers at the circulation desk. We heard something by the windows, and thinking it might be the window washers or some kids messing around outside, I said I would go and see who it was. Before I had taken two steps though, the entire building started shaking, and people were freaking out. My branch manager yelled, "Everybody get outside!" And to set a good example, she reached the door in about 1.2 seconds.

After about half an hour outside trying unsuccessfully to use our cell phones (I gave a helpful speech about why an earthquake might disturb cell phone service to a bunch of children), we were told we could go back inside. Then about 5 minutes later they changed their minds and told us all to go home. And I had only been at work for about three hours! I ended up spending the afternoon with Maren and Grace, making tropical squares, hiking in the woods, watching The Electric Company, and eating dinner. It was a really nice day. Thanks, earthquake! The only damage at work-some cracks in the walls that might have gotten bigger. The only damage at home-one of my pictures tipped over. All in all, my kind of natural disaster.

My second natural disaster was Hurricane Irene. I'll admit, this one wasn't as pleasant as the earthquake because:

1. We knew she was coming. So we spent a lot of time getting really nervous about her. 
2. Even though I got out of work 2 hours early on Saturday, I have to use my own time for it. Boo! 
3. The main storm hit while I was asleep, so I didn't even get to appreciate it. 
4. There was apparently some kind of leaking by the front door of my house, so it is now freakishly hard to open and close it. We're really hoping that it will dry out in a couple of days and go back to normal. If not, our landlord says he'll come and shave down the doorframe or something. I don't know. 
5. Church was canceled. Of course, I had already made my food for munch and mingle, so now I have a ginormous bowl up substandard (I messed up the recipe) German potato salad to finish off, and I don't think I can do it. Plus, having home church is way hard. You can only do churchy things for so long by yourself before you start to go crazy. 
6. The tree in my front yard was almost completely blown over in the storm! I should have taken some pictures of it before I staked it up, but I didn't think to. So you'll just have to trust me. It was leaning over a lot more than this. Also, trust that it is a heavier tree than it looks. I literally could not get it to stand up any taller than this.

But by far the worst thing about the hurricane was the power outages. We got lucky at my house, and the power never even flickered. But I'm pretty sure that was just our street and a few houses around the corner. A good portion of the rest of the neighborhood was still without power as of this morning. Maren and Dave had no power for about 42 hours. Several of the libraries in the city have been closed because they have no power. And most tragic of all, the schools have been closed! The first, blessed day of school was supposed to be Monday, but since many of the city schools had no power, they have been off for the last two days. It just isn't fair. I was supposed to be free! Free!!!

Update: Since typing the above, I have heard that school is starting tomorrow! I'm saved!

Anywho, those were my two natural disaster experiences. Since I have gone my whole life without living though any natural disasters, it's pretty amazing to have had two in one week. I can only conclude that this trend will continue and try to prepare. I think we'll be facing a plague of locusts next, but for our fourth disastrous occurrence, I can't decide what it will be. I'm torn between Rise of the Machines and Zombie Apocalype. The way things are going, we might get both! But rest assured, unless it's the Rise of the Machines, I will be blogging about it!