For the Love of Edouard

Thank you, Houston, for being an entirely loony place to live. Really.

I ask my fellow Houstonians:

Have we learned nothing from Hurricane-Inspired Hysteria of the past?

On Monday, I was a bit groggy, having not slept much the previous weekend (can we say YEAH! I CAN STILL STAY UP ALL NIGHT! LIKE COLLEGE! Oy. My poor, abused fankles. See: Kasia's 25th-Not-David-Bowie-Themed-But-Sort-Of-Silly-Hat-Themed-Kinda-Dance-Birthday-Party-2008) and painfully returning to life in the over-heated urban area I call home. During work, there was buzz about "tropical storms" and "stocking up on water" and "what ever shall we do, the world will end." Andrew called me from San Diego to barrage with me with questions of "What's your plan?" Hmmmm. My plan is to sleep in? [Must. Catch. Up. On. Sleep.] So I jump on our trusty Weather Channel to investigate the Hubbub. No hurricane. Some swirling storms with a name which sounds like a yuppie hipster who pretentiously makes the spelling of something common, impossible [Hypocrite, table for one]. I continue to search the internet looking for something I might have missed. Are we getting excited about tropical storms now? Did the Rita traffic disasters give us all nervous ticks? On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store for dinner supplies and beer (which is redundant, really) and witnessed pure pandemonium in the bottled water aisle. My fellow citizens were stocking up on enough Ozarka to solve a water crisis in Luxembourg. It was as if everyone thought we would be without water and electricity for the remainder of 2008.

I get home and check the news again. Maybe I missed something in the past few hours? Nope, still no hurricane. And the sky is beautiful and sunny and blue, which is extra deceiving.

I wake up Tuesday morning to a light sprinkling of rain and think maybe it's starting? The calm before the torrential storm? Maybe I have been too languid? The entire morning is spattered with light April-esque showers. And I really did sleep in. Bless that tropical storm, work was cancelled the whole day.