Tempting fate...or, Come On, Irene

Magnet #1281 - Accidents will occur

This magnet made me laugh this morning, because as I type, I'm sitting in a rather nice but kind of ridiculous Delta gate at LGA, waiting for my noon flight. To North Carolina. In the midst of a hurricane.

Note: This silliness is only outdumb'd by me thinking I might actually make it home to NYC on Sunday night.

I'm headed to Raleigh, so that Save the World Couple and I can drive up to Richmond and meet up with DCSis for a weekend in Richmond. You know, the town that was superclose to this week's earthquake epicenter and that's now also relatively close to the Irene's path, too?

The airport's pretty calm right now, so I should be totally fine getting down to NC, but I suspect that it'll be DCSis' bus trip from DC down to Richmond that will be plagued with troubles, if not cancellation.

I'll totally admit here that I'm sad to be missing NYC in a hurricane, but at this point, nothing will stop us from heading into a hurricane to celebrate the baby sister's 30th birthday.

Ya'll stay safe out there, Eastern Seaboard!

A little rockin' and rollin'

Magnet #1278 - Keep Calm & Rock On

Earthquake! Good gravy. Before today, this magnet totally had another meaning. Now? It's all about the earthquake.

We were sitting in our offices when one of the 20somethings said, arms outstretched, "Whoa, what's that?" And we all realized we were feeling a little sustained flutter of movement.

Within seconds we realized it was an earthquake. Actually, I double-checked and it was @JenniferEhle who told me so. After that, TweetDeck totally blew up.

So totally cool! What a fun afternoon! I've always wanted to feel an earthquake, but didn't want to travel to California to do it. Now, I can cross that off my bucket list. And it was a small one, no really big casualties. Perfect! Thanks, Universe!

I do love how it was totally like a bad TNT movie, with people evacuating buildings, and shutting down businesses and other public institutions. You just know that somewhere out there, there's some really hot geologist, like a Dean Cain or John Schneider or Luke Perry, running around with stacks of paper in hand, saying, "I told you so, get me the President!" while searching for his family and cute kids.

Meanwhile, the team and I just sat upstairs in the office, and chatted away. (Much like the great blackout years ago, where I didn't leave the office once, and missed all the fun shenanigans on the streets.)

Now you know where I was when the Virginia Earthquake 2011 happened.

Of course, given that the rumble was felt from Toronto down to Georgia, it totally poked a hole in our family emergency plan, where if some giant emergency happens, I walk down to DC, pick up DCsis, and then we walk down to North Carolina and hang out at the Abellaland compound. We always figured nothing would be happening in North Carolina.

Yep. Guess we figured wrong.

Every little helps

Magnet #1115 - Every Little Helps

Another cute sticker magnet, with Hello Kitty tending to the earth.

I keep wanting to post all the places you can donate to the quake/tsunami victims, but there are way too many.

Just remember, do your homework for where you're donating, texting, providing supplies. But also remember, every little bit helps.

Hasten to do good

Magnet #1114 - Hasten to do good

I love this sticker magnet. While I know Hello Kitty and her buddy are just headed off to school in their roller-skates, I prefer to think they're roller-skating off to save the world.

Using it for today, because if there's any time I love in humankind, it's that short period of time right after natural or manmade disaster strikes - when the world pulls together for the good all and just want to help get things done. Everybody pledges money, sends help, sends supplies, etc.

Mind you, all the goodwill is followed right afterward by recrimination, but for that short time when everyone just wants to come to the rescue is nothing short of amazing.