It's a mashup of Katria and 9/11 for me. Combine that with the fragile state I'm in this year--I've had enough fucking loss thank you very much--and I'm tearing up and really feeling Rob's absence.

I keep tuning in and out myself.

Sometimes I can't stop looking at pictures. Sometimes I need to run out of the room.

Yeah, I bet, MFNlaw. Give yourself some time and space to deal, or not to deal, as you need.

On the flights thing, brenda, so true. I was looking up today a one-way flight from Nashville to Indianapolis and a round trip from Albuquerque to Washington DC. Guess which was cheaper? Go on, guess.

I am not watching the concert, we left the house. Buffalo wild wings with mac.

My god, what a group on stage right now: Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, Bruce Springsteen, and Jimmy Fallon. Surreal.

edit: And Will Ferrell on triangle. Weird.

Sometimes I can't stop looking at pictures.

I've looked at so many the past two days, I turned on the concert just now and I couldn't do it. It reminds me most of 9/11, but it's all the homes that are gone that's so like Katrina. I never imagined it would hit this hard.

Sometimes I can't stop looking at pictures. Sometimes I need to run out of the room.

Yeah. I'm like that, too.

This is the third time that I've watched on TV and called family and friends as someplace I know and love had a disaster. The feeling of "I should be doing something to help my people and my city," while I can't really do much other than send some money to the Red Cross, doesn't get any easier.

I just started watching.

My student who was out of touch in Long Beach is OK, and although her family home's first floor is destroyed, they are OK in the second floor. And she is such a sweet girl that she is planning on giving free babysitting to her neighbors and anyone in long beach so that they can work on their houses without worrying about their kids! They are cooking on the grill and she has learned to make oatmeal on it.

The town where I grew up is largely OK, but it'll take a while for it to get back to normal. There wasn't a ton of flooding, but a lot of wind, and so lots of trees are down, some of them crashing into houses. Latest word is that about half the town has power. It'll probably be sometime next week before they start getting it back -- the repairs that are getting priority are places where they can fix one line and get power back to 1,000 houses. In my town, most of the lines that are down are ones that just lead to one or a few houses, so those are pretty low priority.

Hil, I hope it progresses as quickly as possible. I'm glad your family is OK.

Ugh, now they're manipulating me with a photo montage set to "Fix You." That song is like kryptonite for me.