Am I being over-dramatic about all this? Maybe, but not by a lot. Here is what's gone on since my last update at the nuke plant. After work was over that day, I got a ride back to Aberdeen with a couple of coworkers. I had opted to hitch a ride over there to save the precious little gas we had left. When I left work Tuesday afternoon, I told quite a few people we were thinking about leaving. My boss's take on the subject when I explained that I would just meet them in Satsop at 6:45 instead of meeting in the newsroom at 6 to carpool, was "OK, but you HAVE to be there."

Great. No pressure.

Even though Stephen was getting sicker, we decided to go ahead and make a break for it Tuesday night. So we piled in the car and drove back down Blue Slough Road (my third trip on detour central that day) and waited in a long line of cars all trying to make a mass exodus. (This was the day that they announced five to ten days of no power.) We made it to my mom's house by 7:30 p.m. and were thrilled for showers and warm food and a warm home.

On Wednesday, I got up at 4:45 a.m. and left at 5:15 to drive to be back in Satsop by 6:45.

My directions from google were starting to look confusing, so I pulled over and asked for help at a cafe in Elma. I said, "I need to get up to the Satsop Development Plant." Guy said, "Can't. Road's closed." I explained that yes, one of them was closed, but there was a back road up and I'd just been on it the day before. He explained, very slowly, like I was a third grader, "Can't. Road's closed." He was very very sure. I started flipping out. Obviously, if I couldn't get up, they couldn't either. But I didn't know what to do next. Just then a couple of guys invite me to sit down with them and I recognized one of them as someone who works at the plant. He was the guy who gave us tech help the day before. I felt a lot of relief. If he said it was closed, it was closed. After joining them at their table and ordering a much needed cup of coffee, he actually explained to me that two people from our sister paper, The Vidette, were TRAPPED up there as they'd been working on the paper when the roads flooded. !!!!!!

I chatted with the guys for awhile when work finally called me. (I didn't have any phone numbers in Stephen's phone and mine was dead.) I told them what I knew, and they told me what they knew. My instructions were to hang tight until they called back while we figured out what we were doing. Sure the original plan (I was really rooting for this) was for us to go to The Olympian if we couldn't return to Satsop, but then apparently they left all the equipment there. Oh. I see.

So I had coffee and laughed and made small talk with the Satsop guys. I called my mom and let her know the new hurry-up-and-wait plan. I prayed for Olympia. Or for them to say, "Don't worry about it today Suzanne. Just go home, we don't need you that badly." This second one seemed unlikely, but a girl can hope, right?

After a frickin hour went by, I called them back. I learned the power was BACK ON at the office. Holy crap. "Get here now" was the word. No no no no no!

I hopped back in my car and drove all the way back to Aberdeen, via the detours. The river was rising and I was happy the road hadn't flooded out yet. I finally rolled into work at about 9 a.m. And once I got here? Nothing. I sat for another two hours doing diddly squat until it was go time. Then I put out half the paper in an hour. OMG, I am so exhausted with all this.

They let me go at 2 p.m. on the condition that I drop something off for a reporter in Montesano. Sure! I'm outta here! I did stop by my house first and turn off all the blaring heat and such. I checked for damages and there weren't many, other than our poor burnt up table ...

Word on the street was that the Chahalis was still rising, and fast, and though the officials said that Aberdeen was not expected to flood, I didn't trust em. Not to mention the thrilling concept of driving from Kent to Aberdeen to Kent to Aberdeen all in one day. Yeah ... I called work to find out what time I was needed today, hoping they'd be a little more honest with me — I'm getting pretty tired of this hurry up and wait crap — and I find out that they've decided to go ahead and print a Preview afterall. Meaning I have to do the WHOLE THING TODAY. So the answer that question is mega early. I need to get in mega early. Hmmppphtt.

So we decided to stay at preachan_sidhe's house in Olympia. It was still a lot of driving, all done by me because of how sick Stephen is. We got in at about 8:15 p.m. (Ben napped in the car, of course) and all the boys had some time to play, which was really nice. As I was putting him to bed, he hopped up and shouted "love Alex" which was really nice. I'm glad this whole thing has been like a vacation for him.

Commuting has been worse than hell on my sleep schedule, our gas bill, and nursing, but I think we made the right decision. I did actually get a decent night's sleep and managed to get up at 5:30 and get here around 7 a.m.

It's now 1:38 p.m. and I'm still plugging away at Preview. As soon as I finish, I get to drive BACK to Olympia and we'll talk about what we're doing for tonight. At least I got special permission to be a little tardy tomorrow morning. Mmmm. Sleep.