How I prepared for Hurricane Irene: the Saturday Edition

1. Went to Pathmark for batteries and ready-made coffee (yes, it wasn't until today that I realized no electricity means coffee maker no-worky). Struck out on batteries, but scored on Starbucks ready-made lattes. So what we'll lack in light we'll make up for in caffeine.

2. Ask my husband to set the table for lunch, and realize when doing so he has thrown-out my iced coffee because "the ice looked melty." In the midst of my outrage, my mother suggests perhaps I could just write an Instructions for my Husband post about it and let the rest of us eat lunch. Realize this housing-an-evacuee thing may be more difficult than I had originally thought.

3. Obsessively watched CNN and Weather.com, even though they had no new information.

4. Neurotically worried my brother would not make it back from his trip upstate to his home, and pregnant wife, in Brooklyn. (No judgement.)

5. Wrack  my brain deciding where my kids should sleep most safely over night as storm, rain, winds and tornadoes approach our New Jersey home.

6. Wondered how I would pass the day tomorrow without electricity. Was glad to see Cool Mom Picks had Dozens of ways to turn hurricane time into fun time, until I realized they were almost identical similar to my 6 Ideas to Keep the Kids Entertained Indoors - Even if the Power Goes Out I wrote for New Jersey Family two days ago.

7. Considered the implications for my mom - who refers to herself now in the third person as "The Evacuee"- that all major news outlets are exclusively showing her apartment building when talking about areas of Manhattan that will be hit the worse by the storm.

8. Pass part of the evening looking-up children's books about hurricanes and heroines named Irene.

9. Pass the rest of the night on Twitter, find the hilarious tweets of Seth Fried, which are so funny it almost makes the hurricane worth it.

10. Go to sleep, hopeful I will wake-up in the morning and this will all just be a bad dream.

Hoping for everyone's safety in the storm.