Hello Hurricane 

I’m currently in a loaded down truck with two dogs and my Dad heading out of town. Hurricane Harvey is going to make a direct hit on our little town, just north of the city where my studio is. We originally were going to ride it out but things got worse and we had time to leave so we did. 

At this point we aren’t sure what we’ll come home to, but we did all we could to secure everything. My mom, sister, and 2-week-old nephew left with my sisters in laws this morning and Dad and I headed out a little before 10am. The winds were picking up and the rain was starting to blow in. 

I intended to have a blog post written yesterday, but the storm started getting ugly. I prepared my house the best I could by taking down my ballet painting and putting her on top of my bed and getting as much off the floor as possible. 

Before we knew we were going to get hit with an insane storm, ballet classes started this week. I teach on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, so I was able to teach my class Wednesday before things got really bad and we closed the studio yesterday. 

It was really weird knowing that I wouldn’t be staying for class. Even more odd was seeing my friends and dance moms and them asking what classes I’m taking and telling them, “I can’t dance anymore.” 

Everything escalated so quickly that I haven’t seen any of them for them to really have any inclination that this would be a thing. Last they knew, I was dancing the corps roles of our spring show while taking class twice a week, not including rehearsals. So to go from that to “I can’t dance” is pretty drastic. 

I explained that I’m still able to teach, but I have to have an assistant. They were glad to know that I’ll still be around and and not totally out of it yet. 

My class is full of 18 five year olds who seem to love life and are very chatty. They’re stinking cute and hopefully we’ll be able to get a good sense of order pretty quickly. Once I learn their names it will be much easier. 

It made me so happy to be back in the studio. I’m not sure what we will be coming back to when this storm is over. They’re expecting 120 mph winds and storm surges of up to 15 or so feet, with up to 35 inches of rain falling. Our downtown studio is prone to flooding and I’m not sure how the studio in town does, but we’ll cross that bridge when it gets here. 

Please be praying for us as this storm is going to be rather catastrophic. To be blunt, they’re telling residents in our town that stayed to write the name of their next of kin on their forearms with sharpie and tape it. Please also be praying for my brother in law who is a police officer in this town and is working the storm through Monday.