monday mash up, hurricane sandy edition

Monday Mash_Sandy.jpg

I can't get onto Photoshop, so please bear with me...I hope it isn't too hard to follow along! From Left to Right: 1. Friday hike | 2. & 3. Celebration Dinner | 4. Calm corgi before the storm | 5. Hand Crank weather radio (we've had it for ages, first time pulling it out!) | 6. Supplies: out | 7. Comfort food | 8. Comfort cookies | 9. Celebration Prosecco | 10. Brain food, Halloween Party | 11. Evening beverage | 12. Coffee nose | 13. Cafe Stella | 14. The Standard Four | 15. Rain-swept night | 16. & 17. Nervous hounds | 18. Rainy Anniversary

Usually I write these posts on Sunday evenings, once Cal has finished the last little bit of his homework and we're done with our Football Sunday supper. The Sunday night game is on and we're all cozy on the sofa. Relaxing and gearing up for a new week.

It's not quite 10 a.m. and it's raining steadily now. Winds are light but gusty and my twitter feed is filled with updates. Hurricane coordinates, tunnel closings, readiness tips, school cancellations (neither Neel nor Callum yet, although we anticipate it). We're not anticipating the true impacts of the storm to start to build until late this afternoon into tonight. With no direct hit for us, we're used to storms like these. Our weather folk on the TV will compare Sandy to past storms: more like Irene than Isabel. Not quite as bad as the 2009 Nor'easter. It gives you a frame of reference. Living here for ten years now, we feel well used to such weather events. (The dogs will never get used to them. At various points throughout the day they've been pressed up against each of us. When I got out of the shower this morning, Lucy-the-beagle was sitting on the bath mat.)

The most fun of these storms is the anticipation. I say "fun" when we don't have to really worry overmuch. I'm worried about my more Northeastern friends. They'll bear the brunt of this beastie and, unlike the coastal south, those states may be unused to events such as these. Ten years in, I feel old hat at it by now. We have water on hand at the start of every hurricane season. We check batteries. We have a pick-up-the-yard routine. Sometimes we board up the French doors (in France they just call them "doors") that lead to our back yard, and sometimes we don't. This time we didn't. I did my regular grocery run, but added some stuff. We pulled the cars deeper in the driveway. Yesterday I made soup and cookies and finally finished all the ironing that had stacked up.

Update: 10:30 a.m. Medical School closed Monday, now we await word on Callum's school. 2:05, Cal's school finally made the call.

Everywhere you go people talk about the storm. I had my usual Friday hike with my friend Tracy whose husband works in the theatre program at Regent University. You know, thatRegent University... She got an automated message about straight line winds of 50-60 mph with this storm. And we had to wonder: did Regent get that message from the National Weather Service or straight from God? Several of us had a chat with a new neighbor about what to expect on the street, and Saturday morning found nearly everyone in their yards pulling in chairs,clearing gutters and trimming low lying branches.

We'd been meaning to buy a generator for months, and of course this storm forced our hand in the most annoying way! Neel and I dashed out Friday night before Callum's report card celebration dinner and every place we looked was sold out. Shipments coming in Saturday morning. He and Cal set out for what ended up being a rather jolly four-hour wait fest. The good folks at the Home Depot brought out chairs for the dozen plus folks who were waiting; someone brought hot dogs and popcorn for everyone. And now we have a generator.

We had a lot of fun Saturday night. A Halloween party thrown by colleagues of Neel's. I've decided that there are two kinds of people in the world. People who "do" Halloween and people who are "meh" about it. We're "meh." But! Lovely party. They do it every year and we've never been before, and when it's not raining there's apparently a haunted pathway and all sorts of fun stuff. In my book, the "fun stuff" was the smoked salmon that another guest brought. But that's just me! After that party we went over to Cafe Stella (my new favorite coffee shop) to Listen to The Standard Four, a jazz quartet featuring another of Neel's colleagues! It was really, really nice. The music, a little dessert, some nice and unusual beers and the rain and windswept streets outside. I like that kind of night.

And Sunday we wait. The dogs need reassurance. Neel gets extra time to write an exam. Callum is doing his homework, just in case there's school Monday, but the early part of the day has been quiet. So quiet, in fact, that it's actually hard to imagine that it's going to get bad here at all. But it will get worse; how much worse is the question. We will likely be spared the brunt of the storm, and it's my friends to the north that I worry most for. Please hold them all in the light.

If we do lose power, I will like be unable to update the blog for awhile (generator or not!). You can find me on twitter and maybe even instagram

Sunday evening update: after a rather unremarkable day, things are beginning to deteriorate this evening. As I'm writing this last bit, it's now just after 8 p.m. and our lights have been flickering and occasionally dimming for the last hour or so. We expect they'll go off overnight, but Neel promises me that our new generator can power the coffee maker (best! anniversary! present! ever!). I'll be back when I can, my lovelies. In the meantime, please hold those who are more directly in the path of this terrible storm in the light.

monday mash up, october 22

Monday Oct 22 copy.jpg
Monday Oct 22 copy.jpg

1. Jackie's pizza | 2. House tour | 3. East Beach views | 4. Dinner with friends | 5. Best breakfast | 6. Necessary Bloody | 7. Dog Pile | 8. Painterly | (9.) Nearly there | 10. Studio light | 11. Prop shop | 12. Studio time | 13.  Bike ride | 14. Lunch | 15. October sky | 16. Violet | 17. Thea | 18. Lucy | 19. Grocery reward, saved for later | 20. Boys bathing dogs | 21. Drinks with dinner

So I got to thinking after last week when so many of you said, "wow, that's a lot!" in reaction to our weekend. Seems like I've had that comment on quite a few Mondays. I guess we do manage to cram in a lot. It's not my preference. I much prefer to sit on the sofa all day and snuggle up to a Harry Potter (or West Wing) marathon, but I figure there'll be time enough for that when it's 40ยบ and rainy outside. Suffice it to say, this weekend wasn't much different. :) But it was good.

I had two meetings on Friday, so instead of cleaning my house and hitting the grocery store (which is what I'm meant to do on Fridays), I was out and about nearly all day. My new Friday tradition is going to include stopping by Jackie's for bread, however. Especially when she feeds me brick-oven pizza. Really, nothing tastes better, you know. We might have to order one next week. Neel and Cal had what Cal has long called "Man's Night" Friday night while I went to Homearama with my friend Jean. We've been wanting to do this for ages, and the event totally lived up to its billing in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Norfolk. I'll post on that tomorrow, so you'll just have to stay in suspense for a bit! We had a spot of dinner too, and, like with my friend Tracy, solved all the world's problems. Why don't I do this more? Family time is important, yes, but time with friends leaves me refreshed and rejuvenated and brings home a better version of me for my family. I'd do well to remember that.

My goal for the weekend really was to set us up for the next week. Laundry, clean house, chores done. We pretty much got there. I don't want to fall into the trap of doing it all on the weekends, but we laid a good foundation for future weekends, I think. The studio is pretty functional. The bathroom ready for its final phase. Floors are vacuumed. Laundry done (mostly, and then there's the ironing...), groceries are here and meals are planned. We might make it! We didn't get everything done, but. But. We did give the dogs a bath! How's that for productive? And I've worked out my schedule for the week (in my head at least). And that alone makes me feel as if I'm starting the new week off right.

It was a gloriously beautiful October weekend here. I've mentioned in the comments on a couple blogs that fall hasn't really struck in the Tidewater yet. Our leaves don't really peak until early to mid-November, and they're just now starting to turn. We have so many evergreen magnolias and pine trees around us that every single year I wonder if the leaves really will turn. They do though. The bright yellow ginko and the scarlet maple. I'm trying to be patient. But that sky! That is what an October sky should look like. Give me more and more days like these. We rode our bikes to lunch (which was probably why we didn't get the pictures hung in the dining room, but I'll take it.) and the air had that perfect crisp bite to it. Lunch was a bit of a bust (neither Callum nor I liked our soup very much), but the ride alone, along the Elizabeth River was totally worth it, with the sky reflected in the water and the pop of white of a sailboat dotting the horizon. I'll respond to your comments from earlier posts this morning, especially the political ones, but if there was any doubt that Virginia was what they call a "swing" state: Obama won on yard signs on the way to the restaurant and Romney on the way home. Not long now.

As you know, I've been feeling very blessed and energized lately. I try to remember these moments when I fall into those inevitable pits of despair! They never last, but boy, you can try to pull the good lessons with you, I suppose. Theresa noted last week that the universe was smiling on her. Tori posted a wonderful video that, if you haven't seen, you should go check out. Janine found it very inspirational as she guides her daughter to begin her own choices for her life's work. As I read Janine's post, I was reminded of a series on NPR from years ago called This I Believe. They produced it in the 50s and then brought it back a few years ago. One of our favorite essays from the series was by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and called "Do What You Love." Very few of his words are all that prophetic, but his story is truly remarkable. Worth noting, for sure. And at the end of the essay he writes, "You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous."

Ah, yes. The universe and Tony Hawk have spoken. (Side note, what an amazing idea for a blog series, huh? Too bad it's already been used. Maybe I can tweek it.) Here's to a spectacular week, my lovelies!