September 14, 1999
Hurricane Floyd

Yes, the most recent hurricane to hit the continental United States is the biggest topic of conversation in Gainesville. The students at the University of Florida are happy because classes after 3 PM today and all day tomorrow were cancelled due to the impending storm. Maybe if Hurricane Floyd can work its magic we’ll get Thursday off too. Although I am really happy about the class cancellations I know that we will have to make up for lost time at a later date. This week was going to be a real pain so the extra time to get work due is a blessing. My intermediate engineering analysis test is postponed until next Tuesday and my homework for space systems design won’t be due tomorrow because we won’t have class. Now I have time to work on all of my assignments and study for my tests without going crazy from the stress. I look at this hurricane as a good ally, but it might turn out to be an enemy later in the year when we have to make up our class periods that we missed.

I didn’t hear anything much about Floyd until 3 PM yesterday from a friend in chorus class. She was worried that the roof would fly off her apartment building if the winds got too strong! At least the Alpha Chi Omega house is sturdy enough. Anyway, I didn’t have time to prepare for the hurricane until after chapter last night. Coincidentally, we had first degree of initiation and chapter so we didn’t get out until 9 PM. Gina, Nicole, and I went shopping for hurricane supplies around 9:30 PM and found that bottled water, size D batteries, and flashlights were nowhere to be found. The “white trash” Wal-Mart down 13th Street (as we lovingly call it here at Alpha Chi) did have a lot of food and fruit juice, though, so we bought a few things. I got some cranberry juice and crackers, plus a couple of 9-Volt batteries for my clock radio (which don’t work). We went to several different places looking for supplies, but nothing was available anywhere else either. We’ll just have to make it through the storm with what we have. As soon as things are back to normal around here I am going to buy a god flashlight and a bunch of D batteries for my radio – just in case.

I wish I had brought my phone with a cord from home. Now as soon as the power goes out (let’s pray it doesn’t) I won’t have a phone because mine is cordless. I won’t have any Internet access either. What am I going to do? (Just kidding.) Classes are supposed to start back again on Thursday so let’s hope we are able to do so. My Sigma Alpha Iota pinning ceremony was cancelled for tonight and it should be rescheduled for sometime next week. The career and internship fair was postponed two weeks from what I’ve heard, so that makes life a little simpler. Stuart is supposed to be having a party at his apartment on Friday so I hope that won’t be in jeopardy! Hurricane Floyd has made my week less hectic, but in the long run it might complicate my life in the immediate future.

All right, let’s see what else is going on besides the stupid weather! The little sister prospects are looking grim for me this semester. Last night at first degree of initiation (where we give the new members their pledge pins) there were only thirty-one girls there. Considering we started out the semester with fifty-nine that is a little scary. I hope there was a conflict that kept some of the girls away last night, but if not we are having a retention problem. If the numbers don’t rise significantly before big/little sister day – in less than two weeks – I won’t get another little sister. I will be disappointed but as long as Katherine gets a little sister things will be OK. Maybe I bought all these gifts for nothing!

I don’t have any plans set in stone for the next few weeks but things are going to be exciting. I think I am going home to visit my family during the Alpha Chi Family Weekend. That’s kind of ironic, but since there isn’t a football game that weekend there wasn’t a good activity for my family in Gainesville. I left some of the gifts that I bought somewhere in my room and I need to bring them back before initiation. That’s the main reason I need to go home, but I miss my family a lot too. As soon as I know anything definite that is happening I’ll make sure to write about it in a later entry. Until then, stay out of the path of Hurricane Floyd!