Gotta love Global Warming...

So we've got a huge freaking hurricane coming.

Already, Rita's at a category 5 with sustained winds of 165 mph, and still has several hundred miles of churning over a hot ocean before she lets loose on H-town.

School has been cancelled for the next two days. I'm so very getting out of town. I'm not in a mandatory evacuation area, and I do love a good storm, but there comes a point where you wonder how sane it is to stick around. Mostly, I just don't want to be without power (read air conditioning) for the three to five days they're predicting. I also don't want to be one of those fools that I kept thinking about in New Orleans... ("Dude, they told them to leave... why didn't they leave?")

This morning, I spent 20 minutes calming down my first class. I had two little girls bawling because, "Miss, we're gonna diiiiie...." (Oh good lord... 12 and 13 year old girls are SUCH drama queens!) I even had to rearrange the furniture in my classroom, getting things away from the window that up until a few hours ago, I was so very thankful to have. Thank goodness for burly 8th grade boys with nothing better to do...

So in 20 minutes when I'm allowed to leave, I will be leaving at 4:00 for the first time yet this school year. I'm going home to pack, and then I'm hitting the road with my girlfriend (tee hee...) as we head 5 hours east, to Louisiana to stay with her father.

I know we're all a little gun shy from Katrina, and I know Houston is in much better shape than New Orleans, but I'm a little nervous...

Here's to hoping my apartment, car, and classroom are all still intact when I get back....