Me, My City & Irene

(Photo by Gandee Vasan, Getty Images)

By now you all know that Hurricane Irene is barreling up the East Coast. There are enough sarcastic Facebook statuses, wannabe-viral tweeting, light-hearted jokes about stocking up on booze and cigarettes and "Welcome, Irene" parties, so I'll spare you. Best case scenario, Irene peters out and becomes nothing more than a rainstorm by the time she reaches New York. Then we'll laugh about how we over-prepared and how we "experienced" an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week. Some cities did get damage from both, so I don't find it that funny. But I'll spare you my treatise, because that's what the op-ed pages are for. They just announced MTA is shutting down the subway tomorrow at noon and all of the lowest areas of all 5 boroughs are being mandatorily evacuated. Things are getting serious, people. The NY Times is updating their information frequently, and here's a list of tips to batten down the hatches.

All that said, we are trying to prepare for the weekend as much as possible. Justin ran to the grocery store, which was a madhouse. I just heard from a coworker that Radio Shack is out of batteries and Duane Reade is out of water.
We're having a couple of friends in our building over for dinner and games. If we wind up powerless or stranded, at least we'll be amused! We're buying groceries to cook some hurricane-friendly dishes and will eat as many perishables as possible in the event of an outage. I might even post some recipes... For now, here's my packing list.

1. Tape Xs across the windows—in the event that they crack, you won't get shattered glass all over the apartment.
2. Stock up on bottled water. We're making coffee, though I realize a french press would be a safer choice.
3. Grab candles and a flash light with extra batteries. It's a good excuse for the apartment to smell heavenly.
4. Watch Netflix streaming on the Wii. Once the power dies, use the iPad.
5. Have an extra cell phone battery on hand, and make sure all your devices are fully charged.
6. If the storm blows over, I'll throw on Hunter Boots and trench coat and go play in the rain. If it doesn't, I'll huddle in the bathtub with a couch cushion over my head.

Any other survival tips or ways to ride out the storm in style? What creative ideas do you have for spending the weekend indoors? As a child, soccer game rainouts were the worst disappointment. But I remember all the ways we made our own fun, from building forts to movie marathons. Mixed in with all the precautions and worry of this weekend, we're going to have some old-fashioned fun and wonder at nature's power. And hopefully, we'll weather the storm surrounded by people we love.
Everyone stay safe this weekend!