[Crystal]
Today's Challenge subject "what if" has put us on a permanent hold for a quite a while now. With all that's been going on in the news lately, we've been super tense. Tropical Storm Harvey, Hurricane Irma, the 8.1 Earthquake in Mexico, North Korea's nuclear testing, today is actually 9/11, oh yeah, and we have an idiot "in charge" right now. The possibilities of "what if" actually bring about feelings of fears, doubt, panic and worry instead of "what if we win the lottery" or "what if we go on some awesome trip?!"

So with my mind on the bad "what if's", we might as well make the best of it so we've been making a plan in case of disaster. Be it flood, fire, earthquake, or attack we all need to be more prepared. We've learned that electricity, water and gas are the first to go so what can we do to have at least 3-5 days of supplies in case Los Angeles is next?

So although our plan is not all hashed out yet, here is our general list of what we believe we would need for survival. : 

Bottled Water/Filtration 

First Aid Kit

Spare Batteries/Cell batteries

Flashlights/Candles

Cash

Radio

Canned Foods/MRE rations/pet food

Generator/gas 

Extra clothes and shoes

Shelter - spare campers  

Blankets  

Of course, we need more time to really work things out, perfect a plan, and carry it out before I feel totally confident that we have a solid backup plan in case of an emergency. But at least this is a start!

Feeling like "what if" may actually prepare us better for possible future events and give us some peace of mind, (if that's even possible). 

So take a moment with your friends and family to sit down, make a plan and start preparing. Cause you never know... what if? 

-Crystal Olguin

September 11, 2017
 

-Ad-

[Mike]
What if? What if is not something I concern myself with too much. I guess that's one good side effect of being anxious. I've already worried enough. Most decisions no matter how dumb they may seem on the surface, were my best thinking at the time. 

In the sense that I know that even stupid decisions were thoroughly vetted by worrying. Even dumb drinking "hold my beer" type decisions I know were stressed tested with what ever mental capacity I had at the time.  

That being said, there are a few things I wonder about. Like most recovering drunks, I carry guilt for the years wasted away. Of course, I wonder what if I never took up drinkin'. 

I know there's a lot more to it than that. I would have had to accept my anxiety years ago, and that proud young man would NOT admit to a fault like that. At the time I would rather take the grief for drinking than people think that I'm crazy. 

I could have avoided a lot of unpleasantness in life that way, but I also had a very good time sometimes.  I feel like it was something I needed to go through. The drinking led to me doing something about the anxiety. Sometimes when I picture what things might have been like if I didn't drink, I wonder if I eventually would have and had things go south when I was older or had more to lose. 

Realizing what could have happened helps me understand that cliches about "having" to go through things to learn from it might be true. 

I don't always feel successful, smart, or even particularly useful sometimes. I wonder what it would be like if I majored in design or marketing or something instead of art. Would I be a success, or end up in the same place? I can look in the mirror and imagine the reflection that of someone who has had a career for ten years, money and clout. Would that have made me happy?

There are friends that have come gone over the years. I've seen the ebb and flow of people in our lives as more of a consequence of where we were in our lives than personal flaws. That's just part of life most of the time. 

There were a few people in ours lives that I do wonder if a different combination of talking about feelings or not talking about feelings would have changed things. When I feel like taking things personally, I realize I wasn't as good a friend as I could be.

So while it would make sense that I would dwell on what if, it's just not constructive. Besides, chances are I've been there, worried about it already, and am ok with the outcome, or at least can see how I arrived at whatever conclusion. Thanks for reading!