4:30 AM - [Light Rain with Developing Winds] Activities were heated. My parents were not delighted about being awaken in the middle of the night and being told to evacuate New York City and I did not appreciate the responsibility of having to make this happen when what seems like mostly everyone and nature was my opposition. Needless to say, situations like this bring out the best between my parents and I. My father insisted that everything needed to planned before taking the first step whereas I would rather take a riskier approach taking a step and figuring out the next one from that point, alike being dropped from atop a tree and selectively landing on each branch during the descent. After all, time was of the essence for we were located some distance away from the airport and it was usually customary to leave a couple of hours early to ensure getting on one's destined flight. Time was running short.
He wanted to call car service. I wanted to just drive one of our cars. My point was that I needed to get to the airport as soon as possible to firm up my itinerary changes instead of waiting thirty minutes for the car service to arrive, then leisurely drift us to the airport, etc..,
My mother insisted upon first retrieving the gift jewelry from the bank before departing and felt embarrassed showing up at the wedding without it to present; a common Asian ritual. She suggested that my father and I go and leave her behind to retrieve the jewelry, noting that even if she had to fly out as late as Saturday morning, she would be able to make the ceremony. Conceptually, this did not seem "right" to me that after all this planning, that both my parents could not be there. We called Elizabeth explaining the situation with the gift jewelry and she noted that it was okay to forgo this ritual, and her relatives would understand. They too, are informed about the hurricane and were concerned that we would not be able to travel to New Orleans, which of course, was more important.
I found myself drained from the discussion and my head felt very crowded due to the intensity and lack of sleep.Suddenly, my father exited the room, reentered and firmly stated that we were not leaving-we were to wait out the storm and fly out afterwards. It would be better to delay the ceremony rather than show up like this. There were too many loose ends, and things just did not seem right. My parents have always been very superstitious and have been known to postpone plans at times due to indescribable gut reactions. I did not understand the logic. Things were already too tense and frankly, this was *not* helping.
I retreated back to my bedroom and got back on the phone with the airline. They noted that their reservations systems were still down and there was nothing they could do at the moment to help us. All I knew was that we were not headed anywhere at the moment.
It was raining outside. My parents are in the other room. We should be heading to the airport. And I was sitting there alone and helpless.
(...to be continued)
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