I ended up going out to New Jersey last night, since I have to be here Monday morning anyway before mass transit will be running in NYC and the shutdown happened at noon today. After going to the gym with my mom and sister this morning, I’ve been spending most of the day with my family moving furniture, taping stuff up, and helping my dad set up the generator Home Depot told him to come pick up at 11:30 last night. When he put his name on the list, he didn’t actually think he’d get one. We’ll see how that goes.

I was feeling pretty torn about coming out here, especially since Chris really wanted to stay in NYC, but it made more logical sense, and my gut was telling me to get out of dodge for a few days, if only because things will be a little less chaotic out here. Still, I made sure the flashlights worked, that there was plenty of food and that he had extra water and batteries—just in case—because I’m a good girlfriend like that.

But anyway, because Irene is coming to dinner, after moving all the patio furniture, my mom and I cooked up a storm. We made a bunch of stuff that will taste good warm and cold or at room temp. That meant lots of roasted veggies, pasta with pesto, red sauce just because, salad and a few other things.

We also made a mushroom lentil soup, which was enjoyed for lunch…

…with some oatmeal stout.

I’m glad to hear about people are doing what they need to do to be safe because it’s a pretty serious storm, hype aside. I’m saddened to hear of a few deaths and am sending out good vibes. Haha oh god, I sound like my mother now…

I really hope we’ll all be laughing about this on Monday and that Chris and I can joke about that time Jess left the city when everything turned out to be fine. In the meantime, though, I hope everyone’s safe and sound and prepared. My dad actually had a pretty good point: “It’s pretty rare to know in advance that the power is going to go out.” I’m still not looking forward to that, but it dulls the edge a little.

What are you making or doing in preparation? Any favorite power-outage recipes?