Welcome to the Dollhouse

The hurricane was over when I awoke today, and after doing some work from home in the morning (for the record, our office has been open this whole time), I took a quick walk in a bit of drizzle to survey the damage.  There were no trees down on our street (even the rose bush in front of our apt remained in tact with its few buds still in place), and people were out and about.  We went back to Trade Fair, and they were fully restocked with milk, bread, etc. which was quite impressive. Overall, we were extremely lucky that the only thing that happened was the morning's loss of cable and wifi which has since been restored.

We also saw our super cleaning up the leaves out front, and sorting/putting the garbage out for pick up (though knowing him, he probably didn't even know that there was a hurricane.)

This evening, after most of the light drizzling had stopped, we took a longer walk.  We went down Broadway (Astoria Broadway that is) for about ten blocks, and looking left and right down the side streets, we only saw one tree down on a car, and one restaurant's awning on the sidewalk, yet they were still open.

We got a drink at the Ravenshead which was also more crowded than it typically is on a weekend, and almost every business on Broadway, from the nail salons to the dry cleaners, were open as if nothing had happened, or was happening so nearby.

Other than that, I worked throughout the day, vacuumed, sorted through papers, played Limbo, made dinner, watched a Walking Dead (rather appropriate in this eery atmosphere) and baked a cake (vanilla, soon to be frosted with chocolate in case you were wondering.)

My friends' current statuses are generally as follows:
Long Islanders: have no power and have either gone to others' houses, or are suffering through the dark with cold showers
Downtowners: Have no power but have made it farther uptown to charge their phones
Hobokeners: Have no power and are stuck as the streets are flooded, I believe the curfew is over though
Uptowners: Out at the bars which are apparently packed

My parents' cars are in their driveway, and two trees are down in the street trapping them in.  My brother parked on the avenue though so they have an emergency ride if needed.

FYI - if anyone needs to stay with us, we have a pull-out couch and you're more than welcome.

One of the craziest photos, which most people have seen by now, is of the building in Chelsea that's facade was completely ripped off, exposing the apartments like a dollhouse.  This is completely captivating and absolutely terrifying.

The subways may be down for 4-5 days which is so bizarre, so I'll be working from home again tomorrow.  I think I only have one more drawer left to organize, plus under the bed.  After that, it looks like I may start taking up the piano.  Also, I did receive notification that my electronic copy of Fifty Shades of Grey is finally available from the Queens Digital Library (sorry, but it has to be read.)

Hope everyone is doing okay!

There’s Nothing to Protect Ourselves When the Rain Gets us Wet

I'm back on my blog, yay!!  This is purely a result of Hurricane Sandy (now downgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy) boredom, so, here we are.

I was not taking this storm seriously at all, probably because I don't watch the news often (so says the International Relations MA), and therefore, did not realize it was going to be such a big deal until yesterday.  I woke up on Sunday in a slight panic, and forced Dave to go to Trade Fair on the corner at 9 am to stock up on "essentials." They were pretty much fully stocked at that time which was relieving.  As you can see, we've grown up quite a bit since Hurricane Irene:

Hurricane Irene Shopping List
Beer
Wine
Snacks
Second trip when we realized we should get batteries and water

Hurricane Sandy Shopping List
Water
Soda
Milk
Bread
Ice cream (I decided that a hurricane warrants milkshakes)
Ingredients for baked ziti
Second trip when we realized we should get more milk, more soda, and dishwashing liquid

We made our second trip at about 9 pm last night as there still was no rain, even though we had locked ourselves in all day thinking it was going to happen.  At that point, there was zero bread left in the supermarket (this shop makes tons of fresh loaves of bread daily, in addition to carrying the name brand packages.)  There was also no milk left in the shop, so I bought the last box of Almond Milk which I was VERY weary about.  So far I've only had it in a milkshake and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I worked from home today, as did Dave, which ended up being awkward as he needed the laptop more than I did.  I tried to use the Raspberry Pi, but that wasn't working, and the Kindle Fire wasn't charged, so I ended up working from my smart phone.  Very awkward.

Before the storm craziness, we went out with Vicki and Thom in Soho on Saturday night.  Vicki saw Mike Myers walk past us on the street (this one, not that one), but the rest of us were distracted by some old lady in a huge feathered hat.  The point of my story is that I am having major deja vu - I am almost positive that I also walked past Mike Myers years ago in Soho and my friend saw him but I did not.  So, if you are that person, please identify yourself so to confirm I am not insane.

Yesterday, while waiting for things to brew, I finally organized my photos from my Southeast Asia trip from 2006 (I actually had to reference my blog entries to figure out the correct order.)  It took me probably three hours to put all of the photos in order because I'm crazy anal, and by the time I put them in the 300-slot album, I was left with at least double that amount still to be inserted.  Aargh!

Here, have a baby elephant

A happy AND funny menu

Spiderman

And some ladyboys

That prompted me to start my next project, which was also ordering miscellaneous event photos all over the living room floor and putting them into empty albums.  I have also been left with probably 200 extra as well.  After that, I did the dishes, flossed my teeth, tweezed my eyebrows, filed my nails, put away the laundry, cleaned the bathtub, etc.  So fun!

Here's a song that I'm in love with thanks to my step aerobics class, can't believe I haven't heard it until now being that it's the Scissor Sisters:

I originally thought that was a woman singing, sorry Jake.

Here's a nice baby photo of me that I scanned not too long ago:

Don't mess with mini me

Dave with his Kurt Cobain haircut just for good measure

If I am bored again tomorrow, I may write an equally boring blog so stay tuned.

I Haven't Blogged in So Long That I Forgot to Give this Post a Title

I haven't blogged in nine months and suddenly the entire format has changed.  Therefore, this is a test.

(This photo is way old.)