Maybe tonight?

~stretching~

I feel better.

Nope, still no electricity but last night after I put the boys to bed and sat down on my couch to talk on the phone by candlelight, for some reason the whole situation became very funny to me. Dude, we’re sitting up with no electricity but everyone is managing quite well.

~singing~ WE SOME SURVIVORS! We ain’t gonna stop, we gonna try harder!

We have all gained survival skills we never knew we had in us.

People sitting outside of the grocery store EARLY in the morning. And they’re not waiting for the store to open, they are lining up to plug their cell phones into the outlets outside the store to charge them up.

We have developed a routine. If we are going out and we know we’ll be out after the sun goes down, you make sure to leave a flashlight by the door so that you can have enough light to light the candles when you get back in.

You know to take a load of laundry with you when you go to visit your friend who has power or wait for hours for a machine to open up at the laundromat.

The small tea light candles work very well, but the BEST candles are the long stemmed ones, they give off way more light than even the little candles in the cup.

Everybody is outside cooking on makeshift grills. My friend called me yesterday and told me a story about how her sister took a shingle that fell off the roof and somehow turned it into a grill, and she made their meals on that. She promised to email me a picture of it. Now you know if I wasn’t cooking BEFORE the storm, ain’t no way I’m rigging up a grill and getting all sweaty NOW.

The Red Cross is giving out food rations which includes a container of MILK. I still don’t understand that but my sons drank it all up and called it DELICIOUS. Also in the box was a can of self warming chicken pasta. The can heats up by itself by some kind of miracle I guess. There was pudding, sunflower seeds, apple juice, orange juice, ravioli and canned fruit.

My Mama called me last night and told me that they were giving out hot lunches at her job. She works at the foodstamp office. She said the Salvation Army gave out plates of spaghetti and peas and the Red Cross came with baked chicken and rice. I wish I had some. I’m not creative with the food preparations, so basically I’ve exhausted all my money by buying myself and my sons one hot meal a day before school and work started back up. Now it’s back to peanut butter and jelly.

Now that the sun goes down just after 6pm I have to make sure my boys are fed before then. Last night I ordered pizza and brought it and my sons to my office to have dinner and relax in the airconditioning until bedtime.

The problem with the electricity is the hurricane came through and blew the light poles DOWN. So it’s not that they have to turn the lights back on, they have to replace most of them. People lost their roofs and many cars were damaged by the storm.

Someone actually called me quoting the people on the news by saying, “We should have been more prepared.” But how many times can you prepare for a hurricane? You just get some water and food and brace yourselves. No one could prepare to be without electricity for weeks. My cousins had to move into their new place without any power, it’s just crazy.

But guess what? We’re a lot stronger than we thought.

I’m not crying anymore. Well, maybe a little. I’m so damn emotional ~grrr~ but I feel a little more upbeat about the whole situation.

Tonight, I’ll lie awake and dream of a warm shower and fresh clean clothes. Maybe the lights will come back on tonight.

What a beautiful, beautiful thought.