Hurricane Holiday

i have to admit i had slightly mixed feelings over the weekend. in the midst of praying for people in areas affected directly by the hurricane, and trying to sympathize and comfort friends, another part of me was like, "yessssss, a four day weekend..." :-P

so here's what i did... "we" decided to go to my house instead of staying on campus, because if the power went out i would prefer to be there than cooped up in a tiny hot dorm room. despite all of the warnings, i really couldn't imagine it being any worse than it actually was. perhaps i'm just always optimistic. whatever the case may be, allison, courtney, ever and i ("we") all went to my house for the weekend. we brought tons of snacks and drinks and along with us. on friday we taped up a few windows, managed to clear enough out of the garage to get one vehicle in, and taped up allison's van. then we watched a couple of movies, ate ice cream and brownies, and did the wonderful things that i suppose you are to do when having a party.

on saturday the power finally went out. but that didn't stop us from having fun. we decided to have a talent show, in which i think everyone at least did something. we recited poetry (including the infamous jabberwocky), and sang, accompanied by papa on the guitar. we played the piano and violin, and patriotically recited the pledge of allegiance, with an accent on the "under god" part. ever and i did a short capoeira demonstration with lots of foolish unprofessional moves. had shadow casting competitions, which were a match for any tv station we could have had our eyes glued to. however, that wasn't an option with the power out.

besides indoor activities, we also jumped on the trampoline, before the rain started, while it was raining, and after. ever and i tried to play capoeira on it, but that ended when i tried to jump up and kick over his head, and he jumped just as high as me. his glasses went flying and we gave up on that idea. then in the middle of the storm we decided it would be good to go see how high the creek was, and we all went tearing into the woods. the creek was dissappointingly low, but we satisfied our meager lust for adventure by crossing the creek and chasing cows at kj ranch. we returned and had a soggy photo shoot, which i will document with this post. ahh, there's just nothing quite like singing and playing in the rain with friends. :-P

so all in all, it was a wonderful weekend. we found out that courtney's house (near houston i think) was hardly touched, and only their fence was knocked down, so we were quite happy for her. on sunday everything was quite fine and sunny outside, though power was, and is still out. we spent the morning cleaning up leaves and branches from the driveway. only one tree fell down near the yard, and it fell toward the woods, so it wasn't really a problem. then at last we headed back to campus. we do have power here, which is wonderful. the south side of town doesn't have power, and a lot of people have no water as well. fortunately campus is on the north side. i can't help but wish some of the power would be out here too so they would cancel classes for longer, but that's just wishful thinking. i think that's enough for now. btw, beware of gas station traffic jams... everyone seems anxious to fill up. i wonder how much gas prices are going to go up...

banal \BAY-nul; buh-NAL; buh-NAHL (British)\, adjective:Commonplace; trivial; hackneyed; trite.

How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty? --Joyce Carol Oates, "Speaking of Books: The Formidable W.B. Yeats," New York Times, September 7, 1969