30+ Essential Things to Pack in Case of Evacuation

Did you know there are 23 active volcanoes in the U.S.? Do global warming-spawned hurricanes, floods, mudslides, blizzards, or tornadoes have you worried?  Is the foliage around you as crisp as tinder, just waiting for a stray spark to ignite it? Whatever the disaster, here's a quick list of things you should remember to throw into the car if you have to get out of town in a hurry. Note that this is not a "pack everything you could possibly need," but prioritizes items based on size, usefulness, and value.

1. Personal ID.  Be sure to pack every piece of ID you have: birth certificates, drivers licenses, passports, social security cards (or #s), work IDs, etc.  You won't be able to get anything done without ID.
2. Bank, financial, and legal records. Be sure to include all checking accounts, savings accounts, investment accounts, college savings accounts, wills, inheritance info, etc.
3. Deeds/registrations/licenses. Take the deed to your house, mortgage info, titles/registrations for all your cars, and any wedding or professional licenses.
4. Insurance Information. Grab the policies for your home, life, cars, and HEALTH.
5. Tax Records. Tax records incorporate tons of important family/financial info. Throw in at least last year's ... 2-3 trailing years if you have them.
6. Family address book. If you have one, take it. You may needs #s and addresses for physicians, family members, or others.  (Even folks who have transitioned to digital phone lists often don't transfer address/phone info for distant relatives, old acquaintances, etc. - so you may want to pack that "legacy" paper address book after all.)
7. Credit cards + courtesy checks.  All of them!  Even store cards.  You may not use them, but you need to be able to keep track of the accounts and account numbers
8. Wallets, purses and keys.  Don't take the time to go through contents - just make sure you take them & you can figure out what you'll need from them later.
9. Computer drives. This includes CPUs/hard drives, external storage drives, and stick drives. You can always buy a new monitor, keyboard, and printer, but unless you've invested in offsite backup, you don't want to lose what's on the contents of those drives.
10. All your cars/vehicles. It's natural to want the family all together in times of crisis,  but consider splitting up and taking as many cars as you can.  They provide potentially important mobility, allow you to pack more, and they are expensive to replace.  You can even live in them if worst comes to worst.  By the way, be sure to TOP OFF THE FUEL TANKS as soon as possible (ideally, as soon as you suspect evacuation may be necessary)!  Nothing more useless than a car without gas.
11. Medication. Be sure to bring prescription meds, but for good measure empty out your whole medicine cabinet + first aid kit and bring everything. You never know what you might need.
12. Optical needs.  Be sure to remember everything you need to keep your glasses/contacts in working order!  Shelters may not be able to easily meet demand for optical needs. 
13. Baby/toddler needs. Focus on packing food (shelters may not be able to provide baby-appropriate food), water, food delivery devices (bottles, special cups), diapers & wipes (TONS!), necessary medications, a portable chair/stroller/carrier (you'll need your hands as free as possible), and something that works as a car seat.  Take a blanket or two & some clothes, but don't load up - if you are evacuating to a shelter, they will be able to provide most of these.  Remember that babies/toddlers like to wander, and most shelters aren't exactly wander-friendly zones, so plan in advance how you're going to keep your child(ren) from wandering off - playpen? car seat? high chair? baby leash?  These may also have to double as portable beds for napping.
14. Elderly/disabled dependent needs. Pack medications, medical records, and medical devices/monitors (wheelchairs, walkers, canes, IV delivery devices, reading/corrective glasses, corrective footwear, hearing devices, diabetic monitoring supplies, etc.).  Make sure you have contact info for all the doctors they see, especially specialists.  Also, if your dependent has special dietary needs, you may want to pack a healthy supply of appropriate foods, as shelters may not be able to meet these needs.
15. Water and food.  Shelters will provide the basics, but if they're overcrowded there may not be enough, so take some extra food just in case (remember a non-electric can opener).  Also take as much water as you can store.  Depending on the emergency, access to water may not be secure.  (If you don't have a handy supply of gallon jugs, remember that thermoses/coolers, jumbo toy buckets, and baby swimming pools can store water in a pinch.)  
16. Stuff for pets.  If you will be taking along a pet, be sure to include food, water, essential equipment (leashes, boxes) and vaccination records.  (Vaccination records may be required for admission into a shelter).
17. Blankets/sleeping bags/towels.  If you are fleeing to a reputable shelter, they will probably have these for you.  Even so, consider taking extra sheets (double as privacy screens, knapsacks, etc.), blankets, towels, and sleeping bags.
18. Flashlights/camp lanterns.  Bring as many portable lighting devices as you can, and don't forget the batteries.  If you get stuck somewhere without electricity, you're going to be grateful for a source of light. 
19. Clothes.  Don't overpack!  Clothes are easily replaced.  2-3 sets should be enough, so you can wash one while wearing the other.  Do, however, consider throwing in a bottle of dishsoap (can be used for dishes or clothes) so that you can recycle.  Don't forget to consider the weather: you may be spending more time than you think out of doors, so include coats/hats/gloves/raingear, sleepwear, and adequate footwear.
20. Toilettries.  Don't overpack!  But do take essentials (soap, shampoo, deoderant, toothbrush/toothpaste, hairbrush), so you can freshen up when you need to.  Don't forget sanitary items, contact lens-related items, prescription glasses, and a couple of towels.
21. Family photos/videos/scrapbooks/heirloom albums/family bibles.  Don't worry about reprints of digital photos that you have backed up to a computer, but DO grab framed family photos from walls, wedding and baby albums, scrapbooks, home movies, boxes of old family photos, etc.
22. Your keepsakes.  Think treasured family records (geneologies, etc.), childhood momentoes, high school/college yearbooks, wedding stuff ... you probably have most of this in a box somewhere, so pack the whole box!
23. Your child's keepsakes.  If you are evacuating with children, don't leave them with nothing! Grab treasured toys, blankets ... anything that has emotional significance ... and bring it along.
24. Jewelry/fur coats/art work/heirlooms/other valuables.  Don't worry about the small stuff (unless it's all in one place and easy to grab) ... insurance will cover it.  But do grab anything with special signicance or with a value over $1000
25. Portable electronics - all of them!  Laptops, ipods, cellphones, PDAs, handheld game systems, book readers, portable DVD/VHS players, and portable radios. Be sure to also pack ALL car & home rechargers, power cords, extension cords, all the batteries you can find, and 1-2 power strips to keep them all plugged in in the event of limited outlet access. They may take up some room but are *well* worth their keep.  Access to the internet is a necessity, and entertainment is going to quickly become a priority if you have to stay away from home for any length of time.
26. Ziploc and trash bags - lots!  These can be used for hundreds of different things - from mixing powdered milk to acting as disposable toilets or waterproofing. 
27. Books/printed materials.  For passing the time, especially if there's no electricity!  (Skip magazines - too little entertainment value for the space they take up.)
28. Notebook + pens.  To help you keep track of important information.  Don't count on your phone/electronics for the purpose, as electricity may not be available to recharge them.  (Also indispensable for keeping children amused.)
29. Duct tape.  Because you always need duct tape.  (I'm not kidding - you may need to hang sheets for privacy, secure possessions, or jury-rig electronics, all of which require adhesives.)
30. Camping supplies.  If you have time and room in your car, go ahead and pack 'em - especially tools that will help you with cooking (camp stoves, fuel, cookwear, mess kits, utensils) and attending to basic needs (FIRESTARTERS AND MATCHES, multi-purpose tools, camp lanterns, tents, tarps, bungie cords/rope).  These items are made to be compact so they probably won't take up too much room.
31. Camera/Videocam. Worst-case scenario, you'll need this to document damage; best-case, you can use them to document your triumphant return home!

50+ Romance Novel Obstacles to True Love

This is yet another one of those blog entries that stems from a conversation with girlfriends.  Discussing the  particularly preposterous plot of a recent popular romance series (hint: time travel and kilts), it occurred to us that all romance plots are inherently a little preposterous, if only because of the necessity for manufacturing some obstacle to keep the lovers separated long enough to generate a plot.  After all, where’s the fun in lovers finding each other in the first chapter and living happily ever after?   Where’s the sexual tension, where’s the suspense, where’s the glorious frisson when love finally triumphs over all obstacles placed in its path?

In real life, obstacles to True Love tend to be, well, boring: personality conflicts, parental objections, money.  Fortunately, romance writers are much more creative – it’s hard to imagine a tragedy, complication, misunderstanding or act of villainy that they haven’t enlisted in the cause of thwarting the course of True Love.  Nor would we want it any other way.

Following is the list we whimsically initiated that day, with sample books/movies supplied when we could think of them.   If you’re a romance writer in search of inspiration for conflicts, help yourself.  Otherwise, enjoy the opportunity to celebrate the sheer scope, creativity, and venerable cheesiness of these familiar, beloved romance tropes:

 Separated by social forces/conventions

1. Separated by religion.  Is there an easier way to torment your lovers than by having one of them come from a Catholic family, the other from a Protestant family?  Or doom one to be raised in an Amish community while the other is an avowed Outsider?  Might de Boise-Guilbert and Rebecca (Ivanhoe) have lived happily ever after if it hadn’t been for whole the “I’m a Christian crusader, you’re a Jew” objection? 
2. Separated by economic status.  God help the rich man or woman who gives their heart to someone with a heart of gold but a purse of dust, for their relatives are sure to throw a hissy.  (Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion)
3. Separated by social status.  Because everyone knows ogres can’t be permitted to fall in love with princesses (Shrek), businessmen can’t be allowed to fall in love with prostitutes (Pretty Woman), and girls of good family can’t go around lusting after brooding stableboys (Wuthering Heights).
4. Separated by race/nationality.  Sadly, his may be the only one on the list that actually occurs more often in real life than in books, though it’s a reliable trope in Bollywood movies where dishy Indian protagonists are forever falling in love with unsuitable Westerners.
5. Separated by age.  Can either take the form of protagonists too young to marry or a doomed May/December romance (Big, Lost in Translation, Harold and Maude, Moonrise Kingdom).
6. Separated by business interests.  One’s a cop, one’s a famous jewel thief (To Catch a Thief); or, one’s the owner of the business, the other’s a secretary (Working Girl); or, one owns a conglomerate, the other owns an independent shop (You’ve Got Mail). Can True Love triumph over job conflicts?
7. Separated by feud.  Romeo and Juliet.  That’s all we need to say about that.
8. Separated by politics.  A standard conflict in historical romances, especially those that involve civil wars.

 Separated by intellectual/emotional differences

1. Separated by ideas. He’s a liberal (environmentalist, activist, social worker), she’s a conservative (business executive, lawyer) – can they do a better job than Congress of overcoming their ideological differences? (The Way We Were)
2.  Separated by emotions.  He’s brazen, she’s shy (Mansfield Park); he’s uptight, she’s quirky (basically anything starring Meg Ryan); she’s a brain, he’s a slacker (Say Anything).  Apparently opposites do attract – just not until the final chapter.
3. Separated by temperament. They can’t live with each other, but it turns out they can’t live without each other either (His Girl Friday).

 Separated by circumstances

1.  Separated by prior obligations.  “I cannot marry you as I have, alas, been promised to another!”  Especially common in historical romances, back when parents arranged their childrens’ marriages based on political, social, and business considerations (Sense & Sensibility, Shakespeare in Love).
2. Separated by an inconvenient marriage.  Because nothing crushes budding love like a mad woman in the attic (Jane Eyre), a coma wife, or that rash decision made when you were still young and impressionable (Casablanca, Bridges of MadisonCounty).
3. Separated by loyalty/duty.  How do you choose between friendship, loyalty, duty, and love? (My Best Friend’s Wedding; Lancelot & Guinevere in Le Morte de Arthur)
4. Separated by profession. One (or both) have jobs that constantly separate them (celebrities, athletes, musicians, interpreters, art restorers, foreign correspondents) and often involve romantic temptations.
5. Separated by DNA. Lovers discover they are tragically related to each other – cousins, or a brother/sister separated at birth.
6. Separated by artifice. One (or both) are entangled in a sham marriages (or engagements)  (While You Were Sleeping).
7. Separated by world events. The course of true love is interrupted by a crisis: war (Last of the Mohicans), plague, or the ever-popular captured by pirates (The Princess Bride).
8. Separated by tragedy. The course of true love is interrupted by a major life event or tragedy: a death in the family, a political setback, or a sudden change in economic circumstances (an inheritance or bankruptcy).

 Separated by deliberate interference

1. Separated by rivals. The course of true love is interrupted by a jealous rival or other interested party (Antony & Cleopatra, Snow White).
2. Separated by competing agendas. The course of true love is interrupted by friends/family members with their own agendas.  Because nothing’s as insidious as the manipulations of someone your characters erroneously trust but who is in fact motivated by greed, selfishness, and/or revenge (A Separate Peace, Othello).
3. Separated by trial. One lover must successfully complete a quest or deed to earn the attention and favor of their inamorata (Ivanhoe).

Separated by supernatural forces. 

1. Separated by time.  The lovers somehow contrived to meet across time but are doomed forever to be parted by the eras that separate them (The Time-Traveller’s Wife, Outlander).
2. Separated by mortality.  One lover’s a mortal, the other’s a ghost; a guaranteed tear-jerker of a conflict (Ghost, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir).
3. Separated by species.  Because nothing’s quite so fraught with complications as falling in love with a creature of an entirely incompatible species – say, a vampire, werewolf, mermaid or fairy (Twilight series, Edward Scissorhands).
4. Separated by destiny.   A superstition, omen, or prophecy keeps the lovers separated – you’ll find this one in medieval romances and some fantasy/sci fi.

Separated by noble sentiments

1. Separated by self-denial. One lover nobly eschews romance because they are secretly suffering from a wasting illness, a mental disorder, a drug addiction, or some other depressing malady.  Damn their scruples!
2. Separated by a Terrible Secret. One lover nobly eschews romance because they possess a Terrible Secret that will prevent them from having children (a genetic disorder; a previous trauma that prevents conception).
3. Separated by honor. One lover nobly eschews romance because they were Tragically Orphaned At Birth (or, alternatively, suffering amnesia) and don’t feel they can honorably enter into a marriage without knowing the full details of their own parentage/heritage.  An honorable old Dickensian trope.
4. Separated by nobility. One lover nobly eschews romance because the object of their amour is obviously vulnerable, damaged, or for some other reason unable to rationally evaluate their decision to enter into a relationship.
5. Separated by sacrifice. One lover adores the other so completely, they’re willing to sacrifice their happiness to help the other (City Lights).

Separated by insecurity

1. Separated by poor self-esteem. One lover deliberately eschews the other because they don’t believe they’re worthy of love, possibly because they feel themselves too plain (Jane Eyre)  or too damaged (Moonstruck).
2. Separated by professional jealousy. One lover becomes jealous of the professional successes of the other (A Star is Born).
3. Separated by isolation. Lovers fall in love in absentia – perhaps via mail, email, phone calls, letters in trees, or letters in bottles – then become afraid to meet lest their hopes be dashed.

Separated by vocation or calling

1. Separated by ambition. One lover deliberately eschews love/marriage in order to pursue a vocation or calling (The Natural, It’s a Wonderful Life).
2. Separated by vocation. One lover takes a vow of celibacy/chastity, either as part of a profession of faith or as a vow to god in exchange for some great favor (The Thorn Birds).
3. Separated by social convention. One (or both) are trapped in careers where lovers and/or spouses could make things inconvenient  (Elizabeth the Queen, The American President).

Separated by unsuitability

1. Separated by worthiness. One of the lovers (or both) must modify some character defect in order to deserve the other (Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice; Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind; Bill Murray in Groundhog Day; Han Solo in Star Wars).
2. Separated by entanglement. One of the lovers must free themselves from  an unsuitable entanglement (for example, that girlfriend/boyfriend who is only using them for their money/their influence/to make someone else jealous) in order to become available to the other.  (Jane Eyre)
3. Separated by prejudice. One of the lovers must overcome a preconceived prejudice against the other (Pride & Prejudice, Cyrano de Bergerac, Ms. Congeniality).

Separated by memories of love

1. Separated by mourning. One lover deliberately throws obstacles in the path of romance because they’re not yet over a previous romance – even better if their first love died under sudden and tragic circumstances (Always, Sleepless in Seattle).
2. Separated by psychological scars. One lover deliberately eschews romance because they still bear psychological scars from their last traumatic romantic entanglement (Rebecca).

Separated by blindness

1. Trapped in the "Friend Zone." Friends fall gradually in love (Harry Potter).
2. Separated by Temper. Enemies or rivals fall gradually in love (All’s Well That Ends Well, It Happened One Night, When Harry Met Sally).
3. Separated by Unrequited Love.  One minute he’s in your “friend zone,” the next moment you’re realizing he’s Mr. Right (Emma, Jerry Maguire, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kermit the Frog & Ms. Piggy).

Separated by deception

1. Separated by Subterfuge. One of the lovers is living a secret life - spy, fugitive, superhero - that they are not at liberty to disclose (Batman, Spiderman, Zorro).
2. Separated by Impersonation. One lover is pretending to be someone they’re not.  This is one of Shakespeare’s favorite tropes; there’s almost always someone passing as someone else, and usually as someone of the opposite sex.

Separated by a BIG MISUNDERSTANDING. 

1. Separated by Misunderstanding. And finally, the granddaddy of them all, the “Big Misunderstanding” – where one lover mistakenly believes the other lover has somehow let them down (White Christmas), or there’s an outside force preventing them from pledging themselves to another, but by the time the last chapter rolls around, all the misapprehensions have been dispelled, clearing the way for True Love to triumph.

10 Crafting Ideas for When You've Run Out of Craft Ideas for Your Kids in Quarantine

This was the complaint of a friend of mine during the corona virus shutdown - "We've made every craft I can think of!" Macaroni necklaces, check. Construction paper chains, check. Paper mache, check.

In response to which I offer these helpful articles, sure to get any mom's creative juices flowing again!

1. "Decorating Your Home With Pasta"
2. "How to Bake Like the Maid's Coming Tomorrow!"
3. "How to Glitter Literally Everything!"
4. "Easy Radiation Experiments You Can Do at Home"
5. "Transform Those Old Tee-shirts Into a Trampoline"
6. "Crafts that Require 100 Pieces or Less"
7. "Create an Accent Wall With Crayola"
8. "Clothes Stores Closed? How to Make Play Clothes From Curtains the Von Trapp Way!"
9. "Make These REALLY LOUD Musical Instruments Out of Materials Lying Around Your House"
10. "How to Transform Sidewalk Chalk Into Antacid Tablets for Your Parents When They've Had a Little Too Much Wine Juice!"