Making a list and checking it twice

Alright, so here's where I give another confession of potentially OCD behavior. I'm wondering if anyone else who lives in "hurricane alley" has this problem. Apparently, I keep a running mental inventory of things to pack when it's time to evacuate. It's not something conscious, but I've caught myself doing it enough times that I realize I'm doing it. Here's an example:

While in Houston over 4th of July weekend, J bought me a set of nesting dolls in Chinatown. As I walked past them yesterday, I thought to myself, "Those are so cute. I'm glad J got them for me, as I child I always thought they were pretty neat.....I hope they'll still be here if there's another hurricane." Which means I put them into the mental "do not pack" list. I doesn't mean that I don't like them, because I do, they just won't be coming with us.

Hurricane Katrina was only the 2nd time we evacuated. I still think it's a little strange that of all the things I could have brought with us, one of the things I did bring was my antique Czech Mardi Gras beads. Did I bring important papers? Yes. Did I bring pictures? No. It was so sudden that we had no real time to prepare and I panicked. I would have changed a lot about the way I handled preparation for that evacuation. If so many people in Orlando wouldn't have been so helpful, I would have been a blubbering mass of incompetence through the whole ordeal.

For Gustav last year, I think I did a bit better, and no matter how prepared you think you are, you don't know what you're going to do until the time comes. Until that time comes again (because I'm sure it will), I'll keep making that list.