Phew! What a week...

Okay, this post doesn't really have much to do with therapy or wellness, but I'm feeling the urge to write and share, so apologies if I end up boring you! This past week has been one interesting roller coaster, right? It all started on Tuesday at around 1:50PM. I was at my kitchen table working on some invoices for my practice when all of a sudden I thought I'd been transported through space back to NYC right next to or on top of a subway line because the whole house started to shake and I could hear a slight roaring sound. Then I realized that no, I'm still in DC and the sound and the shaking are getting louder and worse, could this possibly be, gulp!, an earthquake?!
Well, as you all know by now, it was indeed an earthquake. Phone lines went down almost immediately, and the only mode of communication was via social media sites (though my internet also went down briefly). Anyway, after I found out how widespread the earthquake had been, I asked a friend in Seattle (by IM) to give my mom a call in New York and just let her know I'm safe and sound. While there were some major consequences of the earthquake (the Washington Monument is still shut down due to cracks in the structure), overall, it really wasn't all that bad. Sure, some people lost a few bottles of liquor that might have been perched precariously on top of a cabinet but all in all, something to laugh sheepishly about and breathe a collective sigh of relief. (By the way, I instinctively chose to go nearer to my liquor cabinet and closer to all the glass to give it support during the 20 odd seconds rather than heading directly for a doorway or under a table, not sure what this says about my survival instincts or my priorities...)

Anyway, all's well that end's well. But wait a minute, hold on here, first an earthquake and then a hurricane?! Huh? The whole time I was pooh-poohing the weather reports convinced it wouldn't be as bad as the hype and hoopla was making it out to be. And, indeed, while DC saw a few downed trees and some houses without power, for the most part, it was more of a strong summer storm than a hurricane of epic proportions. Phew, yet again! But at the same time, I was starting to get more and more worried about my mother. My senior citizen, 4'10", Korean-American mother. All forecasts had been saying Irene was heading on a beeline directly at my mom's town on Long Island. She's on the North Shore but far enough away from the coast that there really shouldn't have been any concern for storm surges or flooding. So, I made sure she had flashlights, a fully charged cell phone, and lots of water, but I was really only mildly worried. A friend reminded me repeatedly that she had survived the end of the Japanese occupation, the entirety of the Korean War, a ridiculous number of serious illnesses, immigrating to the US without much English, and is still a spunky, sassy woman who looks like she's at least 10-15 years younger than she is; a tough cookie, some might call! So, I gave her a call on Sunday morning on her cell phone since her power was (and still is) out and found her in good spirits and ready to wait out the storm. Mid-afternoon or so I tried to call her again and found her cell had died and the phone lines still weren't open, but that's okay, I'm sure she's fine. Then I call her this morning again, to no avail. Now I'm beginning to worry in earnest. Irene had left LI by last night so wouldn't she have just gone to a friend's house and charged her cell phone? Why wouldn't she have just gone somewhere to give me a call? These thoughts as well as images of that old commercial with the woman crying out plaintively, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" kept playing through my mind. (My mom may be mentally tough, but osteoporosis means her bones sure ain't tough!) So, for two hours this morning, I started to enter into the beginning stages of panic. I called family friends in the neighborhood, some of whom I couldn't get in touch with due to downed cell service and others who said they hadn't heard from her. I sent emails to friends to find out their parents' numbers, none of which worked out. And, finally, embarrassing as this might be, I called the non-emergency number for the police and requested that someone drive by and check-in on her. Finally, at around 1050am, I get a call from my mom on a family friend's cell-phone saying she's okay. I guess I roused the troops enough that a friend went to check on her and well, a police officer showed up also at just about the same time! Side-note: thank you to the police officer who, by my mother's quite effusive telling, was a young and very handsome man, haha! But, boo to the woman who took my call at the police department! Her tone of voice spoke to me loud and clearly that I was crazy and wasting her time. Hmph! What if it had been her mother?! Anyway, all's well that ends well again. My mom was quite relaxedly just cooking some food to try to prevent all her food from going bad and just hadn't thought that I might be worried. Parents these days! I tell ya, they have no respect! Gallivanting around, having fun, not thinking at all of how their children might be concerned!

Okay, when did I become my mom?

Dear my future children,

I apologize in advance for being a crazy worrywart who will embarrass you in front of your friends by being such a crazy worrywart.

Sincerely, your future mother

Hope everyone is safe and sound, warm and dry, and less anxious than I am/was!

PS She's not going to have power until earliest Friday! Her biggest concern when I called her was how bored she's been!