Well as I'm sure you all know, while I was in Martha's Vineyard, the East Coast experienced the biggest earthquake in centuries! We were in the workspace watching the riveting coverage from Libya about how Tripoli had fallen and Mr. Gadhafi was somewhere in hiding. It was actually incredible TV and I couldn't stop watching. It meant that we had a little momentary lull in liveshots but we were still working hard. And then all of a sudden, one of my colleagues from another network said "look at the wires crossing... there was an earthquake in DC!" And as soon as she finished that sentence, we all noticed that the room was shaking and the little chandeliers were swaying. It was ever so slight but when I realized that we were 500 miles away and not technically connected to the mainland, I thought it had to be a fairly big deal. I have never been in an earthquake and was a little freaked out that the ground was moving so far away so I could only imagine what it was like closer to the epicenter!
Immediately, my blackberry exploded with hundreds and hundreds of emails about the quake but the one that stood out to me was that the epicenter was a town between Charlottesville and Richmond. That's exactly where Brian's grandpa and uncle and aunt live so immediately I was worried about their safety. It took a little time but we heard from one of Brian's cousins that everything was okay on the farm and I could breathe a huge sigh of relief!
Brian was on his way home and was actually in Rhode Island at the time of the earthquake and didn't feel it. I originally thought he was going to get stuck in the airport due to delays but it turns out that he got home only about an hour late! Amazing! I've been much more delayed than that before without the excuse of an earthquake! As soon as he got home, he went to check out the damage at his place and mine. At first I got the message from him: "everything is good! No damage!" I was so relieved until the next message: "Now going to check out your place!"
Well I have a lot more stuff than Brian so I knew I wouldn't be so lucky. The next message I got from him was "it could be worse." Many things fell off shelves and cabinets, including my poor plate collection. Ever since I started traveling abroad, I have bought a plate or piece of pottery from each country so I could remember my visit. Each plate has some shade of blue in the design and they are displayed on top of my kitchen cabinets and a china cabinet. Well, during the earthquake, they all fell down and a couple of them slid right off the china cabinet.
Now before I go any further, I know they are just plates and I should be grateful that there was no further damage and no loss of life. I truly am grateful for those facts. And I am not one to put a lot of stock in material possessions. I firmly believe they are just that and they are staying behind when it's time for me to see Jesus. I am not one to spend a lot on things because they are just that. But I still had to mourn a bit. The two plates that fell were special to me. One was from Mexico and was the first plate in my collection. But worse than that, the one that shattered the most was from Kyrgyzstan and was my favorite. Beyond that, it really is irreplaceable. Returning to Kyrgyzstan, especially after their recent blip in democracy, is not on my list of things to do in life. I mean, I enjoyed my time and experiences there but I've already been there, done that.
After a few moments of mourning while looking at the pictures Brian sent, I moved on because I had other issues to deal with! Hurricane Irene was predicted to be one of the worst storms in recent history and Martha's Vineyard was directly in its path! We kept discussing the notion that POTUS would be leaving early and the WH kept insisting that wasn't going to happen. They finally announced it was happening day off, as soon as POTUS finished making his statement. The good news is that we were travel pool so we would be on AF1 with him. The bad news is that it was more crucial to have my correspondent on the plane with him and not me. I totally agreed with that assessment but it meant that I would have to figure out how to get home before the airports and ferry system shut down. I really didn't want to be stuck on MV during the storm. I know there were many worse places to be and in the end, we weren't in the eye of the storm but I still wanted to be home in my own house!
The next few hours of trying to figure out the logistics of getting home were a bit stressful but in the end, I had experienced (or at least attempted) every form of transportation in my quest to get home. So my co-worker and I took the last ferry off the island on Friday night. Then we were picked up by a car service and driven two hours to Boston. We checked into the hotel near the airport and slept about three hours. Then we took a bus to the airport and boarded a 6a flight home. It was on time and everything! Then I took a cab home! (At one point, we had booked train tickets so I'm counting that form of transportation. About ten minutes after we booked that, we got news that they were shutting down Amtrak service so we quickly cancelled those tickets!) I was so glad to get home to my house before the storm was at its worst! I immediately cleaned up all the stuff that had fallen from the earthquake and ran a few errands to prepare for the hurricane. Luckily, I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before, I slept through the entire storm. Thankfully, we had no damage and my power stayed on the whole time!!
After an earthquake and a hurricane all in one week, I was reminded of God's awesome power and even more so, His protection. And I'm so grateful for that! But I'd also be grateful if we don't have to experience another natural disaster any time soon!
You'll be happy to know that we didn't have to stay at a place that specializes in colonics this year. We didn't have to negotiate the ability to have solid foods in the house. We rented a big house that was brand spanking new. Absolutely no character and if you look at the IKEA catalog, you'll see exactly what it looked like. But it had air conditioning and forks and only one crockpot and no hydrotherapy room so I count it as a step up!
We did a ton of liveshots and that was before there was really any news!! 
But the best part of this year's trip was that I had a special visitor for a few days!! Let me back up and say that last year, Brian surprised me by sending me cookies (a.k.a. one of my favorite solid foods) and it might have been at that moment that he won my heart. :) But this year, he topped that and actually showed up himself. There was extra room in the big house so it all worked out quite nicely!
We looked at the veggies (and both decided that some of Brian's vegetables from his garden would have won!) and looked at the animals except for the miniature horses (which I was surprised how many miniature horses there were on such a small island) because they made me hyperventilate, as you know. Then we ate something fried and then tried our hand at a couple of games.
We ran into a couple of my colleagues and had Whack-a-Mole competition. I beat my colleagues but didn't win overall so I walked away without a 3-foot hot pink plush bear that was definitely worth less than the $5 entrance fee.
Brian and I also had a quick chance to walk around Oak Bluffs for a few minutes and we made sure that we went to the Flying Horses carousel. It's the oldest merry-go-round in America and definitely a step back in time. I learned the exact meaning of "reaching for the brass ring" as the carousel went around and we grabbed rings, hoping that we would find the one brass ring so we could get a free ride. We would have attempted it more than once but since we were the only ones there without kids and we didn't have much time, we decided that we could cross it off our list and we moved on. 
As I mentioned, the Libya situation was getting out of control so I worked a long time. Luckily, Brian thought watching breaking news was considered a fun activity! I finished work about midnight and then had to be back at work at 5a. Brian rode all over the island exploring. At the end of my 14+ hour day, we met back up and decided to drive to Aquinna to see the lighthouse and watch the sunset. It was beautiful!!! I had only slept for a few hours so I'm squinting a bit but it was such a wonderful evening!
Brian left the next day and I continued to work and do liveshots for the next several days. On Friday, I was in travel pool and all ready for a long day of hanging out with POTUS. With Hurricane Irene approaching the US, POTUS made a statement on his vacation compound about the storm. 
Right after that, we went to hold on my favorite bus from last year and I was getting ready to get settled in. But then the WH announced that POTUS was leaving early because of the storm. So my long day in travel pool came to an abrupt end!! I had mentally prepared myself for hours on that bus and getting through a major portion of a book I'm reading but instead, I launched into crisis mode to figure out a way to not get stuck on MV!! 
This week, I was off for a couple of days and then just saw POTUS for a late M1 arrival on Thursday night. The late night arrivals are pretty cool because it's just a small handful of people here and seeing the chopper land in front of the lit Washington Monument is pretty cool. You'll have to take my word for it because I can never get the flash to work correctly and show exactly how cool it is.
So Monday, I was fine with working late because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering which day is which. It all kind of blurs together now. But by Tuesday afternoon when I realized that I might not have to stay late, I was so excited that I might get home before 10p!!
So for the next couple of hours, I was stuck inside with about a dozen other journalists. I was trying to figure out if there was any way for me (and some colleagues) to get out a different door/gate than the one where the suspect was being held. But since they hadn't determined that the backpack was safe, we were out of luck. I was getting hungry and was actually considering eating that tuna salad in the vending machine.