Yesterday as I was waiting in line just to get in to Trader Joe’s, I spied in the window buckets full of beautiful roses. I usually never buy roses, but thought, if I have to spend at least through the weekend cooped up in my apartment, I should have something to brighten up the place quite literally through what might be a very dark time. This could be a 100 year storm, and certainly it’s highly out of the ordinary that the NYC subway would shut down for a whole day, so I might as well do something special for my abode.

So in addition to the paper towels, sponges, and other items I stocked up on, I bought a bouquet of pink roses. Then I went home and did a load of laundry, as there’s nothing that says “emergency preparedness” like making sure you have enough clean underwear for the foreseeable future. The clean-up trend continued all evening into this morning; the bathtub now sparkles and it’s ready to be filled this evening just in case of power outage, my floors have been mopped, and I did yet another load of laundry!

I feel as prepared as I can be for Irene’s arrival! So now I can relax–watch some Netflix–if the power goes out read a book by either my candle lit hurricane lantern or one of the 5 flashlights I bought at Home Depot. I do expect the power will go out at some point, but at least I’m prepared–it’s a good feeling, as is looking at the roses I bought yesterday!