Stormy Weather

It is definitely summer time in the South. For the past few days, ever late afternoon, ominous dark clouds roll in. Some times it lets a little rain fall for an hour, then vanishes... other times huge torrential storms take over the area and hit you upside the head with their force. The photo above is from my neighborhood last week. I love panorama sky shots, they look so awesome! Those clouds barely gave us any rain until way later that evening even though they looked threatening.

Saturday was my first day back at work after being sick and it was a long day. I grew tired pretty easily and even though we were steady we luckily we weren't swamped. It was a hot, humid and sunny day until late afternoon some grey clouds began to move in. I told my coworker to check the view outside (since the circulation desk doesn't have windows close by like reference does) once they started to get dark. We knew a storm was coming for sure. Fifteen minutes later she came and got me, telling me to go look out the front door. If we thought the sky was dark before, it was BLACK now....

With the sun shining still over us it was a very haunting view to see straight black clouds in the sky barreling straight towards you! At around 5:30 the thunder started ripping through the sky, lightening began making our power flicker, and rain started pounding down so hard we could barely see outside. Pine tree branches were falling all around the pavilion and the grass around the side of the building disappeared under water. It barely let up around closing and we felt terrible having to have people leave to go out in it, but our managers said we essentially didn't have a choice.

We were a bit behind in closing with all that chaos but as we hurried to lock up I almost fell over as soon as I entered our program's office. It was literally raining in the office. I could hear it and as I glanced up I saw a ceiling tile fall to the floor, which had a huge puddle blooming across it, with a SPLAT.

Oh. Crap.

My coworker and I ran to get plastic to try and protect the books (mostly children's books for story times and summer reading) and move things out of the way as quickly as we could. At one point the plastic gathered a bunch of water and poured on to my head soaking me completely! Yea, we laughed about it. I am a decent height, about 5'7'', but my coworker is all of maybe 5'3'' and the two of us trying to drape plastic over eight feet of shelving was pretty comical in itself.

We used soda cans to try and support the plastic and did our best to clean up, staying nearly an hour after we closed.

Needless to say it was a mess! Naturally as soon as we stepped outside to go to our cars it had stopped raining completely. There was even some blue sky off in the distance. You can't even make this stuff up! UGH. It drizzled a little on my way home but at my house it was bone dry. It hadn't even rained there yet! We had a huge storm about ten miles from my house with all this damage and nothing at home. Sigh. I could hear thunder and see lightening as we got dinner ready, but when it did rain (hours later) it was nothing like on base.

Southern Summer Weather has officially begun!

Hurricane Sandy

Here in Eastern North Carolina Hurricane Sandy wasn't very bad. Friday I went to Ben and Chelsea's to celebrate Ben's birthday and when I woke up Saturday morning the rain had started. It was a day of staying in my pajamas and watching TV and snuggling on the couch with Rylie. The wind picked up last night but it wasn't too bad. I ordered Chinese and did not leave my house.

So for the past two days that has been my main source of sustinence. No need to cook when the hubby isn't home! I woke up this morning and went to church and by the time I got out the rain had stopped. I made a pit stop at Lowes for some spackle and then came home. All day it has been pretty windy but the rain hasn't come back. It is definitely chillier today than it has been since we have moved here but its not bad. The sunset made everything glow pink for about half an hour.

Now I am done with my weekend football games (victorty to both South Carolina and the Giants!) and catching up on my poor blog. To all my family and friends up north, especially in New Jersey, please stay safe!!!! I am thinking about you and praying for you.

Don't forget to enter my give away!

Guest Blog!

Today I have a guest post over on Erin's blog Moore To Love. Go check it out! (:


Carrie and I decided to go swimming last night, seems to be a Thursday thing now, despite the fact that there was a tornado warning out. It wasn't even raining when we left the apartment, although there were some wicked streaks of lightening happening! I love lightening. But we get halfway there and the rain starts pouring down. I mean the kind of rain that makes you put your wipers on full speed and you still cannot see. Of course we get to the pool and the rain stops, such is our luck. But we got a good bit of swimming in plus some sauna time and then went grocery shopping as slightly drowned rats.

Note to self: BUY GOGGLES. Red eyes are not nice looking on anyone. At all.

I also had to watch Josh Groban on the Office last night.... even though I am still on last season (woah pregnant people on the show!) I had to make an exception to see Josh be Andy's Bronard! I wish he could have had more screen time but he was awesome.

Today is the LAST DAY to enter my give away! Go!

It has got to stop raining soon. It stopped long enough for our fire drill this morning, at work, and started again. Oy. I cannot wait for some good sunny days.

Ryan lands in 12 hours and ten minutes. So excited. I cannot wait to see him!!!

Irene

Alexandria luckily was not hit too badly. I went to my audition Saturday early afternoon and hunkered down for the night. My neighbor Antoinette and I watched Ryan Reynolds movies and played video games as the night went on. Once it picked up we filled our bathtubs (so you can flush when power goes out) and made sure we were good to go.

It was quite windy and rainy, but not too bad. The major part of the storm wasn't expected til after midnight, so curiousity got the best of us and we bundled up and decided to go check out the river.
It was a little too dark for pictures but it was higher than normal even at that point.

See, very bundled. But still soaked through.

Ahhh wind!

So much rain.

News crew filming on the dock

Hurricane suit = Husband's work jacket + husband's swim trunks + wellies with cherries on them.
The rain was really starting to come down at this point.


Antoinette fared a little better than me in her gortex.

The view from our front door during the storm.

Like I said, Alexandria was very fortunate. Some large trees went down but the river did not flood over and our apartment never even lost power. I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie and was out cold for the worst of the storm. Like I said, we were lucky....

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New Jersey on the otherhand got clobbered, especially with rain. The Raritan River, which is in walking distance from my old house, rose over 40 feet.

This is around the block from my old home.


You have to pass this to get to my street...

I drove over this bridge on a semi daily basis in high school.

Duke Island Park always floods in the rain, but I have not seen it like this since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

I used this road to go home coming off the highway, like all the time. It is between the river and the cow farm and it floods, but not like this!


The Raritan River rose over 40 feet and flooded most of my home town and the surrounding areas.


Our Minor League Baseball Stadium, where I briefly worked as a mascot one summer, is under water


And our "highways" even are blocked, like near the IHop... which also did not do so well...

We have so many little creeks and rivers that have bridges connecting all the towns that a lot of people cannot go far. I know in 1999 we didnt have school for nearly a week since the school bus just could not reach us.


The Jersey pictures I borrowed from facebook and this website, but NJ got hit pretty hard and there is way worse damage than that. Irene was a serious storm. I am glad VA was pretty unscathed, at least by me, but I am keeping my thoughts on my old home.

Milblog Conference

I just got my ticket!!! I am only going to the opening reception Friday night (since it is our first wedding anniversary that weekend) but I hope to see some of you there.

Who's going???



Also friends in the Carolinas.... I hope you're doing alright! I saw the pictures of the damage and my prayers are with you!

Flop?

Wow... I have to say I thought the give away would be a little more exciting? I have two entries at the moment. :( Maybe this wasn't as good of an idea as I thought. I mean, technically I know I still only have 99 followers, but shouldn't that be 99 entries? Or at least like, 10?

*INSERT BLOG FAIL HERE*

Maybe this thing isn't as active as I thought it was.



Top it off I completely wiped out in the rain this morning. I am wearing my favorite black flats (so much my favorite that the heel traction wore away) and they caused me to tumble. I stepped off the front step onto the sidewalk and suddenly my right foot slid out from under me and down I went. I scraped my right palm, jammed my shoulder back into its socket, twisted and wrenched things and bruised my posterior. My umbrella went flying, my lunch and purse... and I got rained on. I dented my redbull, ripped my lunch bag, and bent one of my umbrella spokes on top of getting soaked.

I didn't have time to go change so I dragged my damp butt to the car and went to work with the heat blasting. Luckily I had on black pants under a black and white snazzy long sleeve mini dress I got at White House Black Market, so the water wasn't too visible. I get to work and remember then I have to go to training at our other office near by and proceeded to shiver the entire meeting as I dried off.

Sigh.

Happy Thursday.

Don't forget to enter the 100 Follower Give Away here. Competition is definitely in your odds at this point!

Such A Slacker!

But the good news is....

I GOT THE JOB!!!!

I start September 7th. And the best thing, the commute is SHORT. I mean, maybe two miles at most. After driving forty minutes one way and an hour the other it is going to bliss. I can walk. Or take bus. No beltway!!! My amazing friend Meghan works for this company and passed on my resume and I interviewed Monday. My friend from school Jen did too and even better, they hired her at another location with the probability of her transfering to mine.

Speaking of awful commutes check out mine from this morning...


It was light and a little overcast when I left the apartment. I was on the phone with our family friend Fran when I looked up and saw that. It started to drizzle slightly and I said, "Fran, I think I gotta go." Not a moment too soon as the skies opened up. I have never driven in anything like this in my life. I couldn't see two feet in front of me. I would have pulled over but there is no shoulder on the parkway and I was NOT about to go into the grass. Every now and then lightening would blind me and it took me ages to go at barely 30 miles an hour. The roads instantly flooded and I was honestly following the brake lights of the car in front of me.



I hit the beltway and it stops. Like dead. There was even blue sky!! I was shocked. But when I hit 270 I saw that tree. I had to go around three lanes of traffic to get to my exit. Then all the traffic lights were out... AGAIN.

Surprise surprise I get to camp and there is no power. You'd think after last time they'd send us home. Oh no. The owner, who is in Phili mind you, doesn't want to close. So there is no swimming, we have to be totally outside all day for everything and it is hot as heck and a pain in the neck! Finally they get some sense and do early dismissal at 12:45. I got home by three as car line as usual took an hour but Ryan got home early too! It was great.

We just had a nice dinner and now are drinking some wine. <3

No Power = No Camp!!!

So a HUGE storm went through the DC area yesterday afternoon. Ryan and I went and saw Inception (REALLY good!) and the storm went through during that time, so we missed the whole thing! We go into the theatre and it is over a hundred degrees and we come out and it is about 20 degrees cooler. Then trees were down everywhere as we drove to the cast party to celebrate the end of the opera.

Well our campus where we have day camp had no power. All street lights around were out. So no day camp!!! They tried to keep us around a bit, in case it came on, but it didn't so I got free pizza and left by 1. So so nice. I even took the beltway home with no traffic!

I came home, napped, and then cleaned like crazy. I even made dinner. Then Ricoberto and his girlfriend Tanya, our neighbors who are both chefs, were outside and we all ended up talking and sharing wine. They even tried my meatloaf! It is a recipe from Nicole's blog at Flip Flops and Combat Boots actually for Cheeseburger Meatloaf... and they liked it! I was very happy about that. So thanks Nicole!!!

Now my Summer Essentials Partner, Michelle at ~A'Etonou Family Adventures~ sent me an awesome package... and an award! I only hope my package even somewhat measures up to how great yours was. So thank you. I am going to post about what I got tomorrow because my pictures of what I got aren't working.

But onto the award!



So what you're supposed to do is:


1. Copy & paste the award on your blog.


2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink)


3. List 10 things that make you happy.

1. My husband Ryan!
2. My family and my lovely lovely friends.
3. Being onstage, working in the theatre.
4. Travel. I love going to new places and trying new things and seeing amazing sights.
5. Fireworks. I LOVE fireworks.
6. Reading a really really good book.
7. Sitting on the couch with Ryan and watching a movie.
8. Rollercoasters.
9. Chocolate. Preferably with peanutbutter.
10. My puppy... well my mom's I guess now. Dippy is the best dog ever.

Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!

I am going to pass this on to Skinnie Piggie as I love her blog!