From Rita to read-uh????

This is an email I had sent to friends. But I figure it makes for as good a blog as anything!!! This is an account of my time leading to my "evacuation" of Houston.

Wednesday, September 21st...
* 6:30pm: arrive to parents house to have family discussion on where we should go. dad is sweating like a slave boarding up house. mom is cooking--cornbread, red beans, rice--and walking around pissed cause dad has no plan yet. she is packing up the house. did i mention she's pissed? josiah, my 3-year old nephew whose big head apparently only matches mine in size, yells to me "A HURCANE'S COMING AND ITS GONNA BE DANJRUS!" he, unlike me, is excited. i guess that's the difference between a 3-year old who has the luxury of observing life and a 29-year old who has to live it...mortgage, possible tree through roof, and all.

* 6:45pm: dad comes in for a rest. mom opens fridge and pulls food out. dad says, "ros.. i'll eat when i'm finished." mom yells (becasue she's pissed), "i ain't worried about you! i'm not taking out food for you!". daughters tell mom she's being ugly and mean. slight argument ensues. josiah and zion are yelling. we tell dad not to push further with mom. he does. more arguing ensues. malene makes comment, "no wonder so many families got split apart at katrina. they were probably like, "to hell with you!"" because in a silly fit of rage parents say, "FINE! just leave whenever then!". my mom is pissed because my dad was first trying to say he would leave on friday, then not at all, then at noon. during all this confusion i decide to capitalize on the ticket out of town i had bought just in case and say screw this confusion i'm going to nashville. dad returns outside to board house.

* 6:55: i go outside, feeling bad for dad (you know, he's doing the best he can to "lead the family" and it's really not all that good). i offer to help him board. then malene comes outside. we help. josiah comes out. i play football with him. i can beat a 3-year old in football it turns out. i get bit by mosquitoes.

* 7:30: decide to hell with my family's non-plans and go home to continue taking all potential projectiles out of my yard (loose bricks, trash cans, balls, recycling bins, plants, etc.). my sister is useless at this point. she does little more than question if any of the work i'm doing is necessary. also take valuables (the few i have) to the second floor of my house.

* 9:00: dad comes over. still sweating like a slave. brings extra plywood (no more available in the city). he and my neighbor who has a crush on me help board my back doors. i hope for the best for the rest of my windows. we also scope out the trees around my house. my dad said only one should be of concern and it wouldn't have enough velocity to hurt my house so i should be okay. let's keep praying. gives me a (perhaps false) sense of security.

* 11:00: still putzing around getting packed and cleaning up. getting documents ready, taking stuff upstairs, moving stuff around, etc. parents have decided not to leave. i argue with aisha that she needs to still figure out a plan no matter what they do. she is useless though and says if they don't leave she's in no rush to leave. but she, unlike my parents, has a kid. she needs to leave. whatever. within 30 minutes my parents have changed their mind decided to leave at noon tomorrow. this was at malenes urging. she's my other sister.

* 11:30pm: go to bed. plan to wake at 6am.

* 2:30am: erin and adrian (good friends) take off for dallas.

* 3:00am: malene takes off for dallas.

* 3:30am: dad calls. trying to wake my sis but she's narcoleptic so that's no easy task. she won't pick up the house phone so he calls my cell phone. he says they've been watching the news and the traffic is horrible so they need to get on the road as soon as possible. i wake up my sister and decide to get up and continue preparing the house. putting stuff against windows in case my crackhead neighbors decide to loot, stuffing towels under doors, watching the news like it's crack and i'm a fiend even though no news happens when a storm is 400+miles away. somehow this is all so fascinating.

* 4:30am: my sis takes off to my parents. they go to meet up with my aunt lanette and uncle rayford, grandmother, aunt judy, uncle roland, uncle eric, and some of my cousins to caravan to dallas. they only have one hotel room reserved. we'll see how this turns out.

* 6:30am: i take off. we didn't take out trash on trash day tuesday so i load all the trash and my luggage into the car. i have to put the trash bin in my house so i don't want it to be smelly when i get back (which i'm sure it will be given the power will likely go out). i take the trash to the dumpster at a nearby church, go to the bank, and head to the airport. i call erin. she and her husband are just at the houston bush airport. a typical 30 minute drive has taken 4 hours. my parents are still in houston (in traffic). my sister has decided to go to atlanta and is moving a bit faster but is at a city right past houston.

* 7:20am: get to airport. it's a madhouse. people yelling to find their friends, babies crying, lots of old people being pushed around in wheelchairs, mass confusion. literally thousands of people in line. in a shani first, i am there 2.5 hours before my flight. i get my A boarding card. and i stand in line for 2 hours to get through security. people who check baggage were probably in line fo three hours.

* 9:20am: YAY! success. head to get a bite to eat before getting on the plane. get on plane. we stay grounded. southwest has directs to not move the plane until it is full or there is another plane that needs the gate. some folks who have connections are pissed. i'm not. i think it's a good call.

* 12:30pm: YAY! i'm in nashville. the rest of my family is one to two hours outside of houston (well, according to typical drive times...actually they've been in the car for 10 hours or more). my dad is redeeming himself though by actually leading the pack through back roads to make better time than most. one of my cousins has broke down on the side of the road, my sister malene has been trying to figure out how to change her baby zion and pee without losing her place in the traffic.

* 1:15pm: walk into KIPP Academy Nashville. all the kids start smiling and looking and waving at me. they are in literature circle. Mr. Dowell (that's randy, my boyfriend) is reading. He looks up at me and says to the kids, "say hello ms. jackson" "HELLO MS JACKSON!!!" they scream. i smile and put down my stuff.