To Take or Not To Take. That is the Question.
It’s hurricane season here in the southeast and we are about to experience a doozy. We evacuated on Tuesday. When I thought about the prompt for this week, "10 things about the changing of the seasons", all I could think about was Hurricanes being to most about anything with the changing of our seasons. Our seasons are Summer, Hurricane Season, Fall and Spring. On the rare occasion that we get snow we can say we had Winter.
I posted on Facebook Tuesday morning:
I thought I was completely fine about leaving material possessions behind but as I was taking pictures of everything my stomach flipped when I got to the china cabinet with my grandmothers china and my wedding china in it. I didn’t have time to go get newspaper or do anything to wrap it up and box it. Then I read a wonderful tip to put valuables or breakables in your dishwasher. So that’s where most of it is. We’re packed and headed out shortly to friends in Ohio covered in prayer and peace of mind. Stay safe everyone. #HurricaneFlorence
#1 I had to leave my grandmother’s china
#2 I packed ALL of my jeans.
#3 I packed most of my jewelry. I have so many pairs of earrings and always wear the same ones. In addition to what I was wearing, I packed one additional pair of earrings, two necklaces and 10,000 bracelets.
#4 Last year when we had a hurricane come close, we stayed and were without power for a few days. I’d recently gotten into essential oils and had a really expensive collection. I thought I’d take it all, but in leaving this time I only brought a bottle of peppermint.
#5 I packed four pairs of sneaks and a pair of black flats because I bought clothes that the black flats would go with. We are staying with friends and I wanted to have something nice to wear when we got out to eat instead of looking like a hurricane refugee.
#6 I left a beauty supply store behind. I only brought a comb and brush, one flat iron and my Caruso rollers. I unintentionally forgot my shampoo and conditioner. I texted my friend to make sure she had a hairdryer before I left mine behind.
#7 I packed eyeliner, and an expensive eyebrow pencil. I don’t wear much lipstick so I left it and the mascara behind. I have my lipgloss and chapstick in my purse.
#8 Our homeowner’s policy, marriage license, passports, birth certificates and social security cards.
#9 I brought my laptop and an external hard drive which is full of pictures. The real photo albums I had to leave behind. I wrapped them in trash bags and loaded them up in two suitcases and put on a shelf in top of the closet. Worst case scenario if all our stuff was in shambles upon or return, maybe those two suitcases would be easy to find and with the photos intact.
#10 Teddy, who has been part of the family for fourteen years and traveled with us many times has been put away in the closet for the last several years. Before Christopher started packing he looked up in his closet and asked if I could put Teddy in my suitcase. He said worse case scenario if everything was gone when we got back he’d still want Teddy. Gulp.
You may think my list is of things unimportant but I thought in terms of things that were hard to find and/or too frivolous to replace if we lost everything. And certainly Teddy and a hard drive full of pictures are irreplaceable. I had Christopher pack all of his back to school clothes because that falls until the category of both hard to find and too frivolous to replace. Thank goodness he only has two pairs of shoes he can fit.
If I could have boxed and packed my grandmother’s china that would be the one big thing that I’d take anywhere.
What would you take if you had to leave in one day?
This is a Listicle Friday post. It's the Week 2, of the old school blogging, prompt for the Finish the Sentence Friday writing community where I'm co-hosting with Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee. This week we are sharing "10 things about the changing of the seasons".
Join us for next week's FTSF prompt, a Stream of Consciousness post where we will be writing for 5-minutes on the optional prompt "Leave".