As you may have heard hurricane Sandy hit us a few weeks ago. It was pretty crazy. I worked through most of it. I work for a cable company that is about 45 min away from where I live. They are awesome. They put me up in a hotel 2 nights in a row so I could come in and work during the storm. I worked a bunch of over time and we're getting "hurricane pay" which is fabulous.
I got to stay in my own room at the Marriott. They had Bath and Body Works toiletries so of course I had to take a picture. I found out later that it was the same Marriott that President Obama stayed in right before the presidential debate at Hofstra a few weeks before.
David stayed home during the storm. When I called him to see how he was holding up he told me he was "trying not to get hit by any trees". Luckily my landlady had the "tree people" come to trim down her huge trees the Tuesday before the storm. They had no idea the storm was coming at that point. I believe it was truly a miracle that she "just happened" to get that work done at the perfect time. None of the trees in around our house came down only little branches and tons of leaves. We were so blessed. Some of our neighbors weren't so lucky. These are the only pictures I took, I wish I had more.
Tree by the sump next door.
One of the huge trees that fell across the street from us.
In the aftermath of the storm it's been a normal every day occurrence to see things like this. I didn't take this picture but something similar happened around the corner from where I live.
Our power went out Monday afternoon. No electricity. No hot water. No heat. Luckily our gym is about a mile away from our house, and they had hot water, we went there to work out and shower each day. It was glorious to be able to have a hot shower AND blow dry my hair. David was using his office at the school to charge all our electronics. I had to use the laundromat for the first time in 2 years. It felt like my Bellingham days, I did laundry at the laundromat for the 2 years we lived there. We had to throw out everything in our fridge and freezer. That was depressing. It was kind of scary because had no idea when we would get power back, it's crazy how dependent we are on it.
We ended up getting a cooler and replacing the ice every couple days (ice was hard to come by but not impossible.) We kept milk and yogurt in the cooler. We had cereal, pb&js, jerky, pop tarts, trail mix, and fruit among other things. Mostly we went out to eat a lot during that time.
Those days, while inconvenient, were also kind of fun for David and I. We spent all day and night together planning out how to get our basic necessities each day. We went everywhere and did everything together. During the day our apartment was bright because we have windows in every room and 2 skylights. During the night we used a little flashlight and lots of candles.
This whole experience has really strengthened my testimony of food storage and disaster preparedness. Some times people think Mormon's are crazy for encouraging a year of food storage, but this is why. Unfortunately we don't have tons of space to have a year's worth but it's going to be a priority when we finally settle down in a bigger place. One thing I'm going to remember for myself and recommend for anyone who has food storage is to add a electricity-independent cooking source (gas grill or hot plate, dutch oven, etc.) to your food storage. Hot food makes a huge difference for moral not to mention variety to your menu if you ever end up having to live straight off your food storage.
I got kind of discouraged on Friday after not having power for 5 days. The power company originally said to expect to be with out power from 7-10 days. I read a report that day that said it could be 2-3 weeks. We just bought new winter coats a couple days before and that was the day that it was cold enough that I started to wear it in the house. Later that day when I was on my way to work David called me and told me our power had been restored! I was so grateful. The next day the cable came back.
Things are getting back to normal around here little by little. One unforeseen development was the gas shortage that plagued the island in the weeks after the storm. It was in high demand because people needed it for their generators as well as their cars. Most gas stations were out of power and couldn't pump the gas they had or just plain out of gas and weren't getting shipments because the port of New York was closed for a couple days after the storm. Gas lines were out of control! People were waiting in line for hours. I saw some places that were out of gas and people had left their cars there waiting in line for the next shipment. It was getting so crazy there were several stories of people getting in fights with others who were trying to cut in line and a couple stories of people getting shot! I was lucky enough to have filled up on right before the storm hit and again before the gas shortage got crazy on Wednesday. The lines were nuts once it got full blown, it was normal for gas lines to be be blocking traffic to the point that they had to be directed by police officers.
I went "gas hunting" Monday morning after work at 5am with my friend, Dawn. This was a week after the storm. We passed probably 20 gas stations that were closed and finally happened upon one that was open. It was on the side of the road that was opposite of rush hour (which was the way we were traveling) and hopped in line (or "on" line if you're from Long Island). We only waited 9 minutes!! This was unheard of at the time. I still car pooled to work with Dawn the next day because we didn't know how long the shortage would last.
Since then a gas ration has been put into place depending on if your licence plate number is odd or even you have to get gas on the odd or even dated day. This probably should have been done way before because now it's getting back to normal and gas stations are open again. Things are getting back to normal though.
Last Wednesday we had a nor'easter (I never heard of that until this one) It's basically lots of winds and rain, but not as bad as a hurricane. It did start to snow though, Here it is in action.
This was all supposed to be one video, they were shot one right after the other...oh well. In the first video my car just looks wet and then it's totally frozen on the other side. If you're wondering I'm coming out one of my favorite deli's Stone Soupe. It's a little awkward at the beginning because someone was coming in right when I started filming. Also, I felt really cool because I had to wipe off my camera lens like they do on the news in crazy weather.
The last bit of crazy weather was a couple mornings ago on my way home from work there was tons of dense fog the entire 45 minute drive home. Similar to this.
We truly have been blessed through this whole experience. We had no damage to our home, we are safe, and our only inconvenience was no power for 5 days. I had many friends that went without power for much longer and some who lost their homes completely. I know we had many people praying for us and I thank them from the bottom of my heart and urge you to pray for those who are putting their homes and lives back together.
I LOVE taking pictures of nature. Not great quality pictures unfortunately but if I see something beautiful, cool, or crazy I whip out my phone and start snapping. So here is the last year's offerings.
Crazy furry caterpillar?! This this was HUGE.
I walked out of the grocery store one day and there were hundreds of crows flying around and perching on the trees and power lines
I LOVE my hydrangea bush and was so excited when I first saw it budding this year so I took photos every week or so to document it's progression. I'm pretty obsessed. It's my baby.
This is my friend Lori's little girl Ayla. I was watching her while Lori was delivering her baby Adelyn at the hospital. More about that here. It was perfect timing because my hydrangea's were in full bloom, so Ayla and I picked a bunch and made a boquete for Lori and Adelyn.
This is the finished product for Lori and Adelyn. I had enough that I was able to make a second boquete for our friend Katie, who had her baby Cora the next day. It was the day after Katie's birthday so the balloon doubled for Katie and Cora. :-.)
This was a cute little bunny that I saw when I was out running by the University one day.
This was a beautiful sunrise that I saw on the way home from work at 5:00am. I may or may not have been driving at the time. *dodgy glance*
This was the GIANT spider that lived on our fence for a while. The picture doesn't really do him justice.
This is the video of when I first discovered him coming home from work at 5am. You may have to turn the volume up because I'm whispering. It's pretty intense. I'm probably going to be the next Bear Grylls.
After getting his huge web torn down by my landlord every day for about 2 weeks and rebuilding it every single day, he decided to relocate to the roof/house where he didn't disturb anyone. This was much better for me and I lovingly started referring to him as our "guard spider". He stayed there for about a month and then he disappeared.
This was a day at the beach (1st time I've been to a beach since we moved here.) We went to a north shore beach which is more rocky. South shore beaches are more sandy.
It's been a while since I've blogged about food. I'm not as organized as I was at the beginning of the year with meals I've made, but I decided I to update you with a few food highlights from the last 6 months.
This is the cake my friend Jackie made for our friend Charlene's surprise baby shower. So cute! And very impressive considering this was her first attempt at fondant cake making. (Charlene the one I made the diaper bag for. )
I did NOT make this cake I just though it was really cute. This is the (professional) cake that was at my friend Charlene's planned baby shower.
Since I've been in New York I've had a hard time finding good produce. My friend Shyla told me about this grocery store called Guinta's Meat Farms. It sounds weird but they have the BEST produce EVER. There's so much and it's really inexpensive so lots of people go there=it's always fresh. I've never seen truly ripe (red/yellow) mangos at a grocery store before going here. So obviously I had to take a picture of the beautiful sight.
The fact that they're from Brazil makes me love them even more because it reminds me of one of my best friends Kelsey Sprague. :-.)
This is David's Double layered german chocolate birthday cake. That's right folks, David is officially out of his 20s!
This was his birthday dinner. Omaha steaks and twice baked potatoes (provided by my parents as a birthday present) with spinach and corn on the cob. Delish!
My friend Dawn was talking about all the great things that could be done with Fluff and she couldn't believe I had no idea what she was talking about. I finally had my first authentic fluff sighting and had to photo document it.
If you know David at all, you know he LOVES football. His favorite team is the 49ers, and he's no fair-weather fan...he was there through ALL the tough years. Needless to say he's thrilled with their recent success and for the record he always liked/believed in Alex Smith and now everyone knows why. :-.)
Anyway, football season means that the TV is on football constantly. Every pre-game, game, and post-game show is alway on in our living room. With the recent addition of NFL network and NFL Red Zone channels to Optimum's line up we never run out of NFL coverage.
I have never been a big sports fan, except for the Olympics, of which I happen to be a fanatic. I literally spent the couple weeks of the Olympics watching every sport all day every day that I could. But really, that's only every 2 years that I get to be a fanatic, so going from that to Sports Center on constantly was a change I had to get used to. It's not just football either, that's the sport I mention because it's football season, but we watch everything, basketball, tennis, MMA, golf, and soccer, just to name a few.
Early on in our relationship I came to the conclusion that I could either be bitter and resentful that sports have taken over my home or I could embrace it and become a fan, really be interested, and find a reason to watch. That reason was/is Fantasy Football.
It was with great skepticism that I convinced David's family league that I seriously wanted my own team. They thought David just wanted a second team, but I was determined that I would have my own. I wanted it to be as girly as possible because, lets face it, I'm an amateur, and I wanted anyone that lost to me to know that they lost to a girl, a really girly girl that doesn't know that much about football. Hence my team name, Victorious Secret.
This will be VS's 4th season and I haven't been too shabby. I know a little better what I'm doing, to the point that I can talk football with people at work. They're usually surprised when I mention that I have my own fantasy football team, It's pretty awesome. Some of my co-workers recently started a league, not as in depth as my in-laws league, but a league nonetheless. So I'm in on that one too. So far I won my week one games in both my leagues, I'll keep you posted on how I fair in coming weeks.
One of the best things about getting ready for football season is making our team's logos. The face of David's team has been Tim Tebow the last couple years. His team name is The Rapture.
My logo always involves angel wings of some kind. This is the first year that I used real VS angels.
Here's a trip down memory lane. This was David's logo last year. In previous years Mike Vick was the face of David's team, here he is passing the responsibility on to Tebow. P. S. This was really the 2011 logo, not 2012.
This is the logo for my 2011 season. This was the year we moved to NY. Note the ferocious girly kitten from 2010.
This is David's former team 1, 2, 3 Fo Shizzle with the former face of his team, Mike Vick.
This is VS 2010 with the original ferocious girly kitten.
