I am now a thoroughly convinced that Texas does not believe in guardrails, street lights, and straight roads. Mum and I evacuated to Dallas and my fingernails, or what little is left of them, verify the fact that if I ever have to do it again I’ll scream bloody murder and rip out my hair. She cannot see at night and many times I thought it would be our last night alive. There were no lights on the roads we were on for 90% of the trip and many times the furthest we could see ahead of us was 5 to 6 feet. Certainly not the best when the road veers sharply to the right or left suddenly and there is no way to tell. After 13 hours, 3 panic attacks, 2 food stops, 1 shouting match, and more than enough “Oh my God, where did the road go!? I can’t see ANYTHING! ” comments, we made it to my stepfather’s parent’s house. Boy, oh boy, now I see why my mother’s husband is such a… let me think of nicer word. Okay, there isn’t one. Needless to say, he takes after his father.

We were stuck in a house for 3 days with people we didn’t even know and three extremely hyper miniature Dobermans. The in-laws didn’t make us feel welcome whatsoever. I appreciate that they opened their home to us but when they couldn’t stop talking about when we would be able to leave it made my mother and I both relatively uncomfortable. We left as soon as Lake Charles was reopened and that was another nerve wracking trip I would have rather skipped. We made the trip during the day this time so it was slightly better in that aspect. I have already told my mother than I don’t care if Ike is a Category 5: I’m staying home.

In addition, after we returned home I saw Evil Dead for the first time. If there has ever been a movie created to scare the hell out of people for the rest of their life Evil Dead is it. I think I spent the majority of the movie cussing at Bruce Campbell for being a bumbling idiot and shielding my eyes and covering my ears. Okay, more like David helped shield my eyes so I had both hands free to cover my ears so I wasn't pressing my other ear against his chest so hard to where he couldn't breathe. What makes matters worse is that I’m petrified of part of the Halloween display at work since the witch sounds and looks exactly like the zombies from Evil Dead. It went off early one morning as I shuffled by tired and totally unaware. I thought I would die. Right there, in the middle of Kroger, just fall over dead from fright. How ironic that my favorite holiday is Halloween when I can barely make it through an 80s horror flick without wanting to scream or cry like a small child. Yet again, that is the intent of (real) horror movies after all. I guess that’s why I love them so much.



Sincerely,

Brittany