I gotta go Julia; we got cows.

As promised, my shitty pictures of Hurricane Irene. Enjoy. Or whatever.

Debris!
My lil supply of food. I had more in the fridge, but this was just in case my house blew up or something. I don't know.
Giant tree that fell down on Woodlawn (that's the street I live on) forthwith knocking out the power to everyone in the neighborhood . . .
. . . and uprooting the sidewalk.

My cat has been petrified! I want to see some punishment!

I'm alive!!!! I'm so happy! I survived Hurricane Irene (or Tropical Storm Irene, I guess; whatever you call her, I did not like her). It was an adventure, to be sure. Honestly, not as much of an adventure as I originally planned, but I feel ok about that.

The storm kind of got started on Saturday night; that's when it started to rain, anyway. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but I tried to make sure I had everything in order, just in case the worst should happen (whatever the hell that means). Anyway, I was ready.

I had a hard time sleeping and woke up several times. Honestly, I was freaking out a little bit. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I've always felt like I could handle pretty much everything. You know, I'm a Brinkerhoff, we're pretty tough, and I can be fairly resourceful. Plus, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm certainly not the dullest. At any rate, the one thing I never felt like I could handle was a natural disaster. So, of course, here I am in the middle of a natural disaster. I bet mother nature had a good chuckle.

Anyway, when I finally managed to peek out from my covers it was about 9 in the morning. It was raining, but the wind wasn't too bad. My power was out which kind of sucked, but I still had running water. I had everything ready. I had my tub full of water just in case I ran out of running water (I read up on how to prepare oneself for a hurricane. I was ready dammit! He who is prepared shall not fear, right? What a bunch of bullshit. I was terrified.) Anyway, I opened up my blinds so I could see this awful natural disaster that I was certain was going to wipe me off the face of the planet. At least there weren't any sharks. It was kind of cool to see, actually. I got a few pictures, but I was kind of afraid to go outside, so they aren't very good pictures. Sorry. Next time there's a hurricane and/or tropical storm out here, feel free to come visit me and take a picture yourself.

Anyway, I kept checking the weather forecast on my phone and reading the news updates. Some power lady said we should all be prepared to be without power for days. Days, with an s. I hoped she was just being pessimistic. As it turns out, she was. My power came back on at around 1:30 or 2, and I promptly celebrated by taking a nap. It was a glorious little nap, and I slept with all of my lights on. Anyway, the power went out again at about 6, and that's when the wind really picked up, in my neck of the woods anyway. I didn't like it. I closed all of my windows so I couldn't hear it. Of course, I could still hear it, but it made me feel better.

Anyway, I busted out my little flashlights and tried to get some homework done. Called Nationalgrid, again, to tell them my power was out. They had an automated phone message thing. I kind of felt bad; I expect they were pretty busy. Apparently like 90,000 people were without power by 6 o'clock. Apparently some of them still are. Counting my blessings...

Anyway, in a fit of wishful thinking I decided to go downstairs and check my braker (I don't know how to spell that). I knew that the power was out because a tree came down on my street (yes, the whole tree. And it was a very big tree. It actually uprooted the sidewalk. It's still there, so no one is driving on woodlawn. It's been kind of quiet), but I hoped I could just switch the braker and my lights would come on again. So through the torrent of wind and rain I went down into my basement. It stunk. It kind of smelled like a mixture of insecticide and gasoline. So now I was all worried that I had a gas leak and my house was going to blow up. Wouldn't that just be my luck?

I called my dear Father who, I'm certain, wondered what I wanted him to do about it. He told me to call Nationalgrid. So I did. They showed up fairly quickly. Apparently what I was smelling was something horrid that had come up the drain when our basement flooded, but we did actually have a gas leak. So two guys from Nationalgrid stayed here until about midnight fixing our gas leak, and my landlords came today to fix the smell.

When I woke up this morning, my power was still out. Cursing Irene, I walked my ass up to the school library. I needed my computer to do my homework, and my laptop is old - the battery doesn't last very long. Anyway, whilst at the library I got a call saying the power had been restored. Yay!! All was right again in my world.

So, all things considered Irene wasn't too terrible to us. There has been widespread flooding throughout the region, and there are still several flood warnings being issued. There are still people without power, and there are still giant trees blocking the roads, but for the most part Albany is recovering quite nicely. I'm really grateful for the power people who, I'm sure, are getting lots of overtime. I for one am appreciative that they are working so hard. I love electricity!

I was going to post my shitty pictures of Irene, but it's taking to long to load, and I am exceedingly tired. I'll post them tomorrow. Until then may you all be in sunshine only (maybe some shade).

That's no moon, that's a space station!

Well, I survived the first week of my second year! Though, I may not survive the weekend. The weather channel isn't being very clear on my survival prospects. Anyway, school is good. I like my classes, though I wish my books weren't so damn heavy. Honestly, my arms are sore from carrying my books around. That tells you two very important things: 1) I really need to do some weight training, and 2) my textbooks probably weigh more than I do. Bollocks.

So, my classes. I'm taking fact investigation which is a practical course, so that should be fun. As the name implies, it's a class about investigating facts, an important aspect of any lawyer's job. It'll be fun to pretend to be a lawyer and sift through depositions, and witness statements, and expert testimony, all made up of course, but that's not the point. The point is, I think it's going to be fun.

My next class is business organizations. I have no idea why I'm in that class. I just had this insane thought last semester that I really needed to take it, so I did. I've only been twice, but I rather enjoy it. We'll see if my enjoyment lasts all semester. At any rate, right now we're learning about partnerships. We talked about the difference between a principal and agent relationship and a partnership, and then the difference between a partnership and a creditor relationship. You know, so far pretty basic stuff. Hopefully it stays basic. If not, I will be hitting up my sister Anna. She is very smart at all this business-y stuff. I may just send her my notes, and ask her to translate.

My last class is evidence. Holy shit. So much information! Honestly, I leave that class with an eye twitch every day. Again, it's a very important class, no matter what you do, and I do rather enjoy it. I dunno why; it really is a dense course (mind you I've only been once...) I think it'll be a good class though.

I'm enjoying my internship at the court house. Everyone is super nice, and when I get lost (which I do frequently. Every hallway looks the same!!) there is always someone who is willing to guide me to my destination. Right now I'm just working on briefing an opinion that recently came out of the Supreme Court, but I've gotten to see some hearings and that sort of thing, so that's been fun. And, as I say, everyone is really nice. My supervising attorney is always willing to answer any questions as is the judge I'm interning for. He's also one of my professor's, so that's good. I think.

In any event, school schmool. The REAL news is Hurricane Irene. Aack! I've never been in a hurricane before. I fear this fall may be a bit more adventure than I bargained for. But I have lots of water (hopefully enough) and a shit load of batteries and junk food. yay? I went to wal-mart today after work (it's not really work. I don't get paid). Anyway, I needed to go grocery shopping, and I thought I'd pick up a few things just in case all hell breaks loose this fine Sunday. Holy mother. It was a damn shitshow. There were so many people there, and they were running out of everything, and there was merchandise strewn all over the floor. Bloody hell. I am absolutely certain that I bought things I don't need and forgot to buy things I do need in my haste to get out of there. If I die, I fully intend on suing wal-mart. God will let me do that from Heaven, right? I am going to Heaven, aren't I? Bugger. I better check my karma before this hurricane hits.

The weather people are calling it a tropical storm when it hits Albany. All I know, is there is supposed to be a lot of rain and a lot of wind, and there are a lot of trees in Albany. I am really hoping and praying that we don't have any power outages, and if we do, that they happen while I'm asleep and are over by the morning. At any rate, if I don't blog again in the next five days . . . . the power's still out in Albany.

Hurricane Irene, bring it! I'm ready for a weather adventure! I think. Possibly. Wish me luck!

"Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm no fool."

Back to school. Sigh. I wasn't ready for summer to be over, but alas, over it is. This week began with a very long drive. It actually went by fairly quickly, which is good. I made it to Hays Kansas at about 9:30 Utah time. Not too shabby. I got stuck in the traffic jam from hell in the Rockies, or I would've made it earlier. Oh well. The room was huge. I would've really enjoyed it if I didn't have to get up the next day and head out again. It was kind of nice sleeping in a king size bed. I woke up lying horizontally across the bed; I guess I was really reveling in the extra space to stretch out seeing as the king bed was significantly larger than my lil bed at home.

Anyway, Monday wasn't as long a drive as Sunday, and I made it to Kentucky in one piece. Good thing too. I was a little worried there through Kansas and Illinois. I saw a funnel cloud and drove through the ocean in St. Louis. It was less than pleasant, but I survived, so all was well.

It was SO good to see my parents! They were very nice and waited to have dinner until I got there, even though it was pretty late. We went to Applebees, and I had some yummy veggie pizza. Dad was able to get some time off, so on Wednesday we all headed off for New York. We cut the trip in half, so we didn't make it too Albany until Thursday, but we got here pretty early. Like two, I think.

Anyway, it was so very wonderful to have my parents here for 2 and a half days. Dad gave Ol' Bessie some serious reconstructive surgery. She runs like a charm now. Apparently I drove all the way across the country on a torn timing belt (I hear that's a bad thing...), so I'm very grateful my Dad was willing to do a ton of work so I don't have to worry about my car exploding or anything. He even put on new brakes. I think Ol' Bessie was pretty pleased about her new parts, and so am I.

My Dad bought a TV whilst in Kentucky. I guess he decided he didn't need it anymore, so he gave it to me. I rather enjoy having a tv. Of course I don't have cable; I'm way to cheap to pay for that. But it's fun to watch movies on it. The picture is bigger and the sound is louder than on my computer, so I'm a happy camper. :) We watched a couple of movies on my lil TV while my parents were here; it was fun.

We didn't get to do a lot of tourist-y stuff; I guess I wasn't being a very good host. We got a ton of stuff done though and just relaxed. Honestly, I didn't really care what we were doing. I was just so happy to be able to spend some time with my parents. I was sad they had to leave this morning, but that's life I guess. OPEN INVITATION: feel free to come visit me! I always love to have people over. And parental units: come back soon! :)

Anyway, so school. I'm doing a field placement with a judge this semester, so I went to my orientation for that on Thursday. It was interesting. My supervising attorney is really nice, and I think they're going to be keeping me very busy, so it'll be good. I suspect I'll learn a lot as well, which is always a bonus. Classes technically start tomorrow, but I only have classes Tuesday and Thursday (Well, I have one class on Wednesday, but it doesn't really count). I'm trying to get my homework done; I'm mostly failing. It's difficult to get back into the swing of things, but get back into the swing I must. Oh summer, why must you be so short!