This fall has been an amazing one. I went upstate and saw my Mom and StepDave for a long weekend. I was able to go to the farmers market, apple picking, and see the beautiful colors. Also, my brother Levi got married! It was the perfect time of year to go home to the mountains and see the fall colors in Park City. I love coming home to Utah. I was able to meet my nephew Sam for the first time! Also, in the city I have been able to take some amazing dance classes, catch up with some old friends, and cousins, go on some hikes and bike rides with my boyfriend, pick out some pumpkins to carve for the holiday, go to concerts, and tell the kids I nanny to jump in some leaves. Also, I helped teach Jack (the 5 year old I nanny) how to ride a bike without training wheels!
Life has been so good.
and then
Hurricane Sandy
I have never seen such destruction in all of my life. It is unbelievable to live in an area in a state of emergency. I was lucky enough to go to sleep Monday night and wake up Tuesday with no damage to my apartment and the power still working! I immediately went outside to assess the damage to the street and to check on my car and felt lucky once again to see my car untouched. Across the street a huge piece of metal was hanging off a warehouse that could have easily been pulled off. There was also metal wrapped around a neighboring car's tire from who knows where. There was a bus sign in the middle of the street, an entire awning was ripped off of my neighbors house and no where to be seen and a HUGE tree down blocking the street just one block away.
After about 2 days inside Zach and I biked into downtown Long Island City to see the damage by the East River. They got it worse than where we are located in LIC, but it appeared that most of the area had power. The feeling in the area was different, it was as if no one was in a hurry. Think about NYC with everyone having no where to go and no time to be there. It was bizarre.
The family I nanny for lost power and only got it back on today (4 days without). I went to work yesterday, but since the subways are still down I had to drive. Zach has been lucky enough to get work at the sister restaurant of the one he usually works at. Since his restaurant is near Union Square they have been closed all week. He's been able to keep his hours as much as possible working at this other restaurant, which is great! The restaurants have been super busy since everyone has cabin fever and sick of being inside. Anyway, once I pulled into the neighborhood I nanny at I was reminded again how bad this storm really was. It seemed like there was a tree down on every corner! There were electrical wires down everywhere and the streets were covered in leaves and branches. I took the kids out to an indoor playground that was open and noticed extremely long lines at all the gas stations. I guess there is a gas shortage now, which is turning the patiently waiting game into panic. It was the weirdest feeling to drive around and see trees down everywhere and people in a state of chaos. I loved seeing the kids again though and they thought it was so fun that they didn't have school. We had a good day wearing lots of layers and playing tag to stay warm.
We are still trying to go along with life as "normal" but with no subways it makes it a little different. I have biked to Manhattan a couple of times now to get to dance, etc, and still feel SO blessed that my life is still so regular and routine after such a disaster. The dangling crane that got so much attention in the media is still up and the street is still closed (pic below). I am looking into volunteering tomorrow since there is still so much to be done. It's unbelievable and I know I will never forget this. My heart goes out to everyone in the area.
