Hostage!

My escape plans are kind of falling apart today. First, the talking heads are telling people that if they're going to leave they should do it today because tomorrow the roads will be packed with people. Probably. Except I can't because it looks like my employer is going to keep up business as usual until Thursday. Which means I would be leaving at 5:00 Thursday night along with the rest of the city. I've voiced my frustration, but the GM has a "big diesel generator in the garage and plenty of gas," so he's staying and I guess he is expecting the rest of us to as well. Maybe I can leave at 4:00 am Friday morning and it won't be so bad?

I have a hotel room reserved in San Antonio. It was going to be me, Nora, and her son Andrew. Nora wants to leave Houston today but I probably can't (see above). Meanwhile Nora's mother, who lives in a nursing home, is anxious about the storm and wanting to know who's taking her away from Houston. The woman has four kids and Nora's the only one who would actually make an effort to help her. So I told her that if she wants to leave today she should take her mother and go. That would be Nora, her mother, her son, and her two dogs all in one room. Getting pretty crowded for me and my two cats!

Either I leave late Thursday and go stay with them (waaay crowded at that point) or find another place to stay. Or stay behind. Al the hotels in San Antonio and Austin are booked up. My mother offered me to stay with them but depending on the direction Rita takes, Beaumont might be evacuated too.

SO. Here we are. Even if I wanted to hunker down and ride it out, all the supplies in town are bought up (water, batteries, etc), and I didn't stock up because I didn't plan on staying.

I know I'm being a prima donna. There were Katrina families from Louisiana all staying in single rooms of hotels. I can still go to San Antonio and stay in that clean comfortable room with Nora, her mom, Andrew, Bonnie, Clyde, Mini and Mandie.