(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

Great. Just fucking great.

Tulane texts everybody periodic updates on the course of (currently) Tropical Storm Gustav. My theatre arts prof told us we should all buy plane tickets now. And the governor is talking about evacuating people on Friday, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

At least Gustav isn't named after me.

On the bright side, now I have a legitimate reason to panic!

Comments

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

Stay safe!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Sounds great!

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

If you do have to evacuate, you can always go to Dallas and chill with my mom for a few days ;). Or, hey, do what I would do, book a cheap flight to Galveston or Corpus Cristi and enjoy the warm beach on the last week of summer while New Orleans gets destroyed again.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

If I have to evacuate, I'm going home to Ellensburg and transferring to Central for a semester, then reapplying to Wellesley.

...I take paranoia to a whole new level.

[lyamainu.livejournal.com]

nah, if they force you out once, I can understand why you wouldn't wanna go back.

*hugs*

I'm in austin, fyi - I know you plan on going home, but wanted to throw that out there.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Add that to my other reservations...

Thank you -- it's good to know that if I can't get back to Washington, there'd be people to take me in, although Tulane evacuates to Jackson, MS. (Which, you know, depending on where the hurricane makes landfall, could be even closer to the problem, but there you go.)

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

You applied to New Orleans and didn't expect their to be hurricanes? You can't turn a college down just because of this. Wait it out, a full year of classes, then make a decision. Apply to Wellesley for Fall 2009 transfer, and you'll hear back from them come March or April. By then, you'll be able to decide if you like Tulane or not, but you can't make a decision based on bad weather (which a) you knew could happen, and b) can happen just as bad at Wellesley... blizzards? Snow and ice storms? Think about it!) and two days of classes...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I swear to God, I did not even think of the hurricanes. I have no idea how I didn't think of the hurricanes, because hello, one of the teachers at my school was a doctoral student at Tulane when Katrina happened and came back to Ellensburg.

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

Wow, and with your name, too! Hurricanes aren't as common as the media makes them out to be... I mean, apart from Katrina, NOLA has been hit how often in the past several years? Yeah, it happens, but it's just a part of life. And look at the entire Northeast back in 1998, with an ice storm that killed a lot of people, cut power for days, and closed down the entire region! You can't predict weather, so Wellesley might end up being just as horrible, storm-wise.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The sitting around watching the news and quietly panicking doesn't really help my nerves either. *sheepish* Hey, at least the SPCA's all ready to start evacuating animals tomorrow! We're not sure about the people, but the animals are going!

Sorry, my brain's not quite stuck on one track right now.

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

LOL, turn off the TV, stop refreshing CNN.com. Go out, enjoy the city. See if the uni is having any events tonight for freshmen, maybe meet some new people. Don't worry about the weather; you can't control it, so ignore it until it comes pounding at your door :D

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Hooray for legitimate panic?

Gets out of scary new classes?

Erm... Nope, I can't think of any more good sides to this. Someone explain to me why the US has all these cities in the hurricane belt ANYWAY?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*keeps watching Yahoo News*

Oh, lovely. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080827/ap_on_re_us/gustav_s_threat) Louisiana's officially in a state of emergency. Fortunately, Tulane evacuates at a Category 1; the city evacuates at a Category 3.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* And I thought Australia had too much weather...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I seriously did not even think about the hurricanes when I was all excited about Tulane. I thought about ice storms at Wellesley, but somehow I managed to miss hurricanes in New Orleans.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Smart move!

S'ok... people have lived around N.O. for a Long Time, it must be liveable... :)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

As we have already noticced, somehow I manage to miss things that should be really, really obvious. See also: financial aid, reputation of school, my temperament, my plans for college/my life. (No, seriously: what the hell was I thinking beyond "I like this school"?)

If we evacuate, I'm not coming back except to get the rest of my stuff. That's that.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I hesitate to endorse such a plan of action, but, y'know, if leaving it up to the Weather Gods takes angsty decisions of your hands?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Waiting to find out if the hurricane is going to hit sucks. And -- I sort of want to evacuate just because it gives me an excuse, but...it's really nerve-wracking, you know? The whole hurricane thing. Because Tulane says, "Have a hurricane plan!" ten million times, and my prof says, "Buy your tickets now!", and my RA says, "This is Tulane's evacuation plan!", and the news says, "New Orleans is panicking! Flee, flee for the hills!", and Jindal's declared a state of emergency and Nagin's coming back and I'm from Washington State. We don't have hurricanes in lovely landlocked Ellensburg. We don't have tornadoes. We don't have earthquakes. When Mt. St. Helens erupted, we got ash, but that was it; I'm fairly certain we're not in the direct line of fire from any of the dormant volcanoes in the Cascades (and that's, uh, all of them).

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Uncertainty. It sucks.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

and as for random choices... sometimes they work out? I had sunstroke when I enrolled for uni, resulting in my enrolment in (instead of the contemporary literature and media units I had planned on, with a side of biblical studies):

* Film-based English units (bad move)
* Arabic (transferred out as soon as I took one look at the textbook, swapped to French, have French major, can't speak the damn language.)
* Arabic and Islamic Studies (cultural course. FANTASTIC. Couldn't continue without the language.)
* Medieval History (utterly random. Fell in love. Am now a wannabe medievalist.)

My father, who had buggered off while I picked my classes, took one look at my enrolment transcript and killed himself laughing. I think he's still laughing, and I'm nearly finished honours in medieval studies.
Wonder what would've happened if I'd taken the Arabic... I might actually have been able to get a PAYING JOB as a medievalist, medieval Islam is a relatively lucrative field...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Heh. My daddy has his undergrad in French. Of course, his master's is in ESL, and now he sprays noxious weeds. So it's not like I'm convinced on your undergrad choices making a big difference in the rest of your life.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Snort. Or is your dad's career good evidence of the uselessness of Arts majors, collectively?

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Port cities in the Gulf = commerce. Hurricanes, mosquitoes, and (at the time they were founded) nasty diseases = unavoidable side effects.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

I'm skimming back through your last couple entries and I feel :( that you seem to be al D-: down there in New Orleans. Hugs and stuff! Crazy hurricanes. And I feel you on the aversion to the caf, I never went that much as a freshman. Don't take how the year starts out as indicative of the whole year, 'cos right now there's a lot of adrenaline and everyone's jumpy, but later people will calm down. Also meeting people will be better and less artificial once everyone settles into their routine and is less concerned with making a first impression. And I agree with Limmenel's line of thought up there about why a Fall 2009 transfer application is preferable. Crazy hurricanes!

Lots of xoxoXOXO in your direction!