Come on, Irene

Irene sounds so much like Eileen to me that I've had "Come on Eileen" stuck in my head for the past four days. True story.

I am beyond sure that you all know about the earthquake and hurricane that graced the east coast of the US this past week, but there was no way I could pass up writing a bit about my experience of both.

First, the earthquake on August 23rd; also mine and Scot's 4 year dating anniversary. I know, I know, we're so in love and adorable that we made the earth shake. Cute.

I was at work at the time, in a session and working on someone's back. I felt the building start to sway and wobble a bit but wasn't sure what was going on - construction, maybe? But I couldn't hear anything, I just felt the shaking. Then about 30 seconds later, the whole building really started swaying and shaking. The massage table wobbled, my client shook underneath my hands, I heard rumbling. I wasn't sure what to do - it couldn't be an earthquake.. I mean, I live in DC. We don't "do" the big earthquake thing. I figured there would be an alarm or my boss would knock on the door if it was an actual emergency.

Honestly? One of my first thoughts went to my laptop which was sitting in the waiting area at work. If the building crumbled, I'd lose my laptop and that CANNOT HAPPEN (I told you I treat that thing like it's my child).

My client and I started talking about what that could have been, when my boss finally did knock on the door. It was a 5.8 earthquake and they were evacuating the building so they could check the integrity and make sure all was ok. We scooted out, I grabbed my laptop, and we actually ended up canceling clients for the rest of the day; us massage therapists don't mess around, you see. I went home a few hours later (after the mass of traffic lessened a bit since everyone else had the same idea) and one of my cats was beyond freaked. She was crawling commando style around the apartment, puff tail and all. The other one has the memory of a goldfish and I think he was just happy I was home early to give him attention.

So that was that. Scot apparently felt some shaking and he was evacuated for all of five minutes before he was let back in his building - I was fortunate enough to get in touch with him via phone only about 10 minutes after the quake. Also? Smartphones can be a dream sometimes, because texting and the 3G network was working really well - I got most of my up-to-date info from Twitter and Facebook on my iPhone!

Life went on, things were good, nothing fell in our apartment. Then the media went nuts over Hurricane Irene and we started prepping for that. We cancelled our Saturday and Sunday clients at work, Scot and I stocked up on water and other hurricane essential items, and I watched the news constantly - more so because I have a ton of friends and family in NYC and Long Island. While DC was supposed to feel the edge of the storm, NY was supposed to get hit pretty hard. Since the town I grew up in is located only 6 miles from the southern beaches of Long Island, a lot of friends were strongly encouraged to evacuate. Of course, in the end, everything was fine - but this storm was no joke. Lots of rain, lots of wind, power outages, downed trees - both in NY and DC (and everywhere else above, below, and in between).

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So what did we end up doing with our impromptu 3 day weekend?

On Saturday, Scot and I headed to the house (officially moving in next week!) to bring over a round of boxes and install some shelving units.

This is considered a bedroom but you can't fit a bed in here..

the owners used it as a nursery, we're using it as a massive walk-in closet!

That night, I braved the torrential downpour and fierce winds and headed via metro into DC in order to meet up with some cool cats and enjoy a $5 Hurricane drink happy hour!

So very worth it.

On Sunday, our power predictably went out (damn you, PEPCO). Fortunately, it came on a few hours later but I was already on my way back into DC for some post-hurricane brunch and soccer at Fado (Go Manchester United!). I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was outside just a day after what looked like impending doom.. but hey, I'll take it!

Sunday night we packed some more, and on Monday I had my first day of being a TA at my massage school! Scot slept in until 3pm since he is starting his evening shift (7pm - 7am) tonight.. more on that later.

And that was my crazy, adventuresome, natural disaster filled week and weekend! How was yours?!