New York..ers

I've always felt somewhat uncomfortable calling myself a New Yorker even though I live in New York and have ever since I moved here from Nigeria when I am seven except for a brief stint in Philly for Graduate school. I have worked in the city and had lived in Jersey City (which it took me all of 10 minutes to get into the city via PATH) but really I think when people think of New Yorkers, they imagine a certain hip kind of person who frolics through shops all day in the most daring fashion and a big Starbucks Latte. Well, unbeknownst to some, a lot of New Yorkers (the people who actually work!) live outside the city and commute into work everyday by train, bus or ferry. Post Hurricane Sandy, this group has had to become even more resilient to say the least because a regular hour and half commute has been made longer, its actually quite hellish trying to get to work. My husband leaves before the sun is up and still doesn't get in until almost 10am..today he drove to catch a train in 

New Jersey because the trains are running on altered schedules, this train goes all the way to Hoboken (which is out of the way of you're trying to get to Midtown), he then gets on a bus which drives through the Holland tunnel and into the Port Authority (42nd street) to then walk back down to his office...as if that wasn't bad enough, today he had to get off the bus and take the ferry because there was a traffic jam and the buses were stuck. So I say, kudos to the sea of black coats and I understand why you don't flash smiles in the mornings...because you're tired and on the verge of losing it! 

Surviving Sandy..

After living by candle light, sleeping by the fireplace, eating peanuts and beef jerky, we are finally returning to normal. We lost power on Monday October 29th around 5:08pm, we had not anticipated losing power so when the lights went out we figured it would only be for a short while, we sat tight but packed our bags just in case. That night, Hurricane Sandy turned into a significant wind event with a bit of rain, the wind howled and it was as if the trees swayed from sky to ground and back. We all sat in one room by the fireplace and eventually fell asleep there. In the morning, we could see the results were bad but we didn't think it would have the effect that it did. The husband and my daughter stepped out to get coffee and something to eat which took them a while, meanwhile got on my phone to read the news and began to see the sheer devastation Sandy had left behind in places like part of New Jersey, Staten Island, Lower Manhattan and Connecticut. There were quite a lot of fallen trees and power lines around here, my neighbor had a tree through his roof and was out trying to cut it out, people were out looking for wood, generators, gas for their cars but many roads were closed.

We sat around for while that day, carved pumpkins and even cleaned the house up but then the temperature began to drop, the refrigerator began to melt and we got worried. My mum, sisters and nephew had already moved into my older sisters home because her power had returned so we called and asked to move some important perishables into her freezer and figured we could hang out, eat dinner there and come home later..to a home with power. That was not the case, our home remained dark until this morning...Saturday. Luckily, she had a spare room for us with a twin bed and air mattress to share. As each day passed and we still had no power we began to make daily trips home to get more clothing and something we might have forgotten. We went trick or treating on Halloween night, we cooked meals, talked and laughed, it turned out to be a really unplanned vacation of sorts. The kids had now school so they played all day and night,  it was like Christmas break  in October. So much so that I decided it might be a good time to try to ween Evalie and get her to take a bottle (from mum or my sister), unfortunately that only resulted in her crying and not eating. This morning as we packed up to return home, the sun was out, the skies were bright and there was a warmth to the crisp fall air. It felt like we had emerged from hiding..it felt surreal. But we're home and everything is calm..so far the only worry is our missing cat but he tends to return in time.

Stormy days...

So the Northeast is expecting a hurricane and to be rained out for the next two days with some high winds and possible flooding. We've been told to stay home, schools and offices are closed, there isn't a D battery or flashlight left anywhere in sight. Some roads are being blocked off, zones are being evacuated, the MTA, NJTransit trains and Light rail are closed and buses are parked. We both received calls from the emergency management systems from work noting closings for Monday and Tuesday but as of this moment we barely have gotten any rain. Its a bit windy but just enough to send the leaves twirling off the trees. Its certainly a huge turnaround from last weekends glorious weather when we took a trip to Storm King. I'm not so concerned about flooding but I am concerned about loosing power in the event of high winds or fallen trees. We are already bored and we've only been home for a few hours this morning, we technically can leave the house but its not that nice out. I'm a bit dissappointed because we also had plans and actually bought costumes for Halloween and now may end up being rained out. For now we'll be carving pumpkins and making s'mores in front of a fire to pass the time.