oh my, i am disoriented. I've been drifting around for five months and have been more than ready to go home, put away my backpack, and get my life on... but that's not going to happen. not this week, anyway.

we are snug in beautiful north carolina, watching gustav bear down on new orleans. my mother called me and asked, "have you seen this? why on earth do you live in new orleans?" and I couldn't quite answer. Something about magnolias and a brass band on a sidewalk and a slow start on a monday morning.

I've never tracked a hurricane before and now I can spout all kinds of nonsense about windspeeds and 5-day cones, categories and contraflow, and and and... it's a very inexact science. probably we'll all be home on thursday. But I know that everyone's thinking: a) that's what we thought last time, and b) if it goes under again, there's no way we're going back.

12:29 p.m. - 2008-08-31