Well, that was a fucking weird week.
I was hardly affected at all. Though I live very close to an evacuation zone (you can see Wall Street from my house! Meaning I live very close to the East River in Brooklyn), it wasn't close enough. Thank God. We never lost power; we only lost Internet for a few hours on Monday.
But it was still weird. My office is in downtown Manhattan, so it was closed for the whole week, and I had no access to e-mail. Our website still worked, so I updated from home, in the comfort of my jammies, like so many media people that week. (Someone wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning, "90% of the news you'll read today was written by someone in pajamas who was drinking before noon.") I did not even bother trying to leave my neighborhood, since so many people who had to go into Manhattan for work (including my husband) said it was a shit show.
I lived in NYC through the massive floods of '99 (which crippled the subway for an entire day and which, up until last week, had stood out as a crazy day in my mind) and of course Sept. 11. Never have I seen the place just grind to a halt--and for almost a week! Holy shit people, that was unprecedented. And so very, very weird.
It was strange to see half of Manhattan with no lights. It was weird to see huge lines at the gas station across the street (and listen to people yelling at each other as tempers flared, even more than normal for New York). And it was awful to watch the scenes of devastation all over the city, and guilt-inducing to do so from the comfort of my warm, dry, electrified living room.
I couldn't really help out with cleanup, being all pregnant and wanting to avoid toxic chemicals. So I sent a few shekels to various charities and made a couple huge vats of baked ziti to send to a shelter. I feel like I didn't do enough, but at the same time I didn't really know what else to do. I kept thinking of that Onion article from Sept. 11 that said something like, "Ohio Woman, Not Knowing What Else To Do, Bakes American Flag Cake." Other than that, I mostly tried to do my part by staying out of the way as much as possible--not adding to the scrum of commuters trying to go places. I didn't have to be anywhere, so I didn't try. I rescheduled various appointments, didn't attempt to go grocery shopping until several days later and just generally kept a low profile.
Oh, and I pigged out like a little piggy. I baked five dozen chocolate chip cookies and ate 90% of them. Yeah, I have back fat now. My doctor is gonna yell at me tomorrow when I break the scale.
I can't take more of this election coverage, so I'm going to bed. Night y'all.
I was hardly affected at all. Though I live very close to an evacuation zone (you can see Wall Street from my house! Meaning I live very close to the East River in Brooklyn), it wasn't close enough. Thank God. We never lost power; we only lost Internet for a few hours on Monday.
But it was still weird. My office is in downtown Manhattan, so it was closed for the whole week, and I had no access to e-mail. Our website still worked, so I updated from home, in the comfort of my jammies, like so many media people that week. (Someone wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning, "90% of the news you'll read today was written by someone in pajamas who was drinking before noon.") I did not even bother trying to leave my neighborhood, since so many people who had to go into Manhattan for work (including my husband) said it was a shit show.
I lived in NYC through the massive floods of '99 (which crippled the subway for an entire day and which, up until last week, had stood out as a crazy day in my mind) and of course Sept. 11. Never have I seen the place just grind to a halt--and for almost a week! Holy shit people, that was unprecedented. And so very, very weird.
It was strange to see half of Manhattan with no lights. It was weird to see huge lines at the gas station across the street (and listen to people yelling at each other as tempers flared, even more than normal for New York). And it was awful to watch the scenes of devastation all over the city, and guilt-inducing to do so from the comfort of my warm, dry, electrified living room.
I couldn't really help out with cleanup, being all pregnant and wanting to avoid toxic chemicals. So I sent a few shekels to various charities and made a couple huge vats of baked ziti to send to a shelter. I feel like I didn't do enough, but at the same time I didn't really know what else to do. I kept thinking of that Onion article from Sept. 11 that said something like, "Ohio Woman, Not Knowing What Else To Do, Bakes American Flag Cake." Other than that, I mostly tried to do my part by staying out of the way as much as possible--not adding to the scrum of commuters trying to go places. I didn't have to be anywhere, so I didn't try. I rescheduled various appointments, didn't attempt to go grocery shopping until several days later and just generally kept a low profile.
Oh, and I pigged out like a little piggy. I baked five dozen chocolate chip cookies and ate 90% of them. Yeah, I have back fat now. My doctor is gonna yell at me tomorrow when I break the scale.
I can't take more of this election coverage, so I'm going to bed. Night y'all.
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