Here, take it! Take it all!

I am back from my dash to the grocery store for a few essentials before Rita sashays onto the coast. Okay, so maybe she's not that light footed. And maybe I didn't buy just a "few" things.

The grocery store is a happening place before a hurricane, I tell ya. Nothing hypes me up like joining the throngs of folks furiously buying peanut butter and Chicken Corn Chowder. The excitement is palpable, and I am one of the first to be swept up in the mania. I start eyeballing other people's carts, to see what they are buying. If they buy it, well, that settles it. I am, too. Cause I need it. Storm's coming. I have to fight the urge to sweep everything off the shelf into my waiting (and already full) buggy.

So I bring back stuff I haven't eaten in fourteen years. Fig newtons? What the? We don't eat those! And what on earth am I going to do with pickled garbanzo beans? The Cheese Whiz was a big hit with Patrick, but it didn't go over so well in my conservative pantry. The "regulars" don't take to well to outsiders, and their foreign spraying habits. It started out with whispers and glares, but it's escalated. I swear I heard some trash talking and rumbling around in there. I'm just staying out of the way. What happens in the pantry, stays in the pantry.

And the toilet paper, oh help me. It's ridiculous. There will be no purchase of Northen Quilt in our home until well after the New Year. And that's if we are outrageously wasteful. I'm racking my brain for other uses, and so far I've come up with a few awesome Christmas presents. (Look forward to it, friends. I'm talking some seriously top notch gifts here.)

I mustn't forget the water. Aah, the WATER. Well, everybody else had so much... It would have been irresponsible NOT to buy enough to drink, and cook, and bathe us (and the cat). And gargle. I mean, you have to do that everyday. And mop? Well, the floor can get awfully dirty with all that mud. And we might need some entertainment, so we'll probably do some water balloons or something. Oh, and heck, let's fill the pool up, too - cause I BOUGHT EIGHTY THOUSAND GALLONS.

And for crying out loud, why did I need three tubes of hydrocortisone cream and a shower cap? That's just weird.

Two days from now, when I am surrounded with all these unused items, I shall feel quite silly indeed.

But better safe than sorry, right? Yeah, that's exactly what got me in this mess.

Well, I will end here. I'll try to write tomorrow, as long as we have power. Now, I have to finish putting away the last bit of things. Let's see, that's twelve bags of ginger snaps, some tweezers, and the economy sized box of dryer sheets.

It seemed reasonable at the time, trust me.