Not A Happy Anniversary*

Hugmonkey still talks about Hurricane Sandy. After things got basically back to normal around here (and once again, we were so fortunate in how quickly that happened), he became obsessed with the weather. We had to check it every morning to see if there was a storm coming and if there was a storm coming, we had to research it's possible impact. That's pretty complicated for a kid who had just turned four.

A year later, sometimes he forgets to check the weather. But he still needs reassurance that Hurricane Sandy can't come back.

Buzzfeed has much better pictures of the storm's impact. 

Every time I reassure him, I wonder what I will say when the next storm hits. And then I think about all the other kids, the ones who went through so much more than Hugmonkey did. I wonder how they are coping, I wonder how they will handle the next storm. I wonder about the kids who survived the flooding in Colorado and the tornadoes in Oklahoma and Missouri and all the other crap that keeps happening. 

Sometimes my heart hurts a lot. 

If you can, please donate to Habitat for Humanity to help the kids (and adults) who have been through too much lately. 

*I know that technically the storm began on Sunday night - October 28th. But for us, it wasn't scary or that bad or power-free until October 29th. So this is my anniversary. 

Out of Sorts

I am out of sorts.

I have been out of sorts since Sandy hit on the 29th. That's like 10 days ago and I still can't seem to get it together. We've had power back for almost a week. My parents finally have their power back today. Everyone I know is okay.

We didn't even lose power during Wednesday's lovely nor'easter. And by lovely, I mean are-you-fucking-kidding-me. 

Still, the kids are back in school. I've spent all our extra money on batteries, lanterns and food donations. And by extra, I mean money-I-really-should-have-used-it-for-bills. 

I should be back to writing blogs and articles and working on my reading website, which will be called "The Reading Witch" because someone already bought thereadingbitch.com. And by someone, I mean that bitch.

Instead I just really want to curl up with the entire Harry Potter series, some chocolate and Rachel Maddow reading election results in the background. Actually, what I really want to do is take Donald Trump's American Express card and buy all the things on the Sandy Volunteer Amazon wishlists:

New Jersey's List

New York's List

And then I would like to donate a lot more than $10 to the Red Cross. Also,  I would like to invite all the people still living in shelters and in schools and wherever to stay in the apartments in NYC that people use as second and third and fourth homes.

This does not make me a socialist. But it might make me a communist. Though I don't expect anyone to give up their New York home permanently, I'd just like them to share while people are in need. Maybe some of them are, I don't know. The only people I know who had second homes had them at the Jersey shore.

So yeah. I'm still out of sorts.

Rizzo Was Totally Right About Sandy

So. Fucking hurricanes. 

I'd like to thank all of the people who were sympathetic to me while I bitched about not having power for 5 days. We're totally buying a generator, I swear. But we had a gas stove top and hot water, so it could have been worse. And sure, we couldn't leave our town for 2 days because all the roads were blocked, but at least we still had a town. 

I guess I'm trying to apologize for being so completely wrapped up in my own plight while so many have it so much worse. I feel like an asshole. 

The first beach we took Ironflower and Lovebug to is gone. 

Businesses are gone

Homes are gone. 

Entire towns are gone. 

People are gone. 

We heard things, on our hand crank radio. And I read things on Twitter and Facebook. But I didn't see any pictures. I still haven't seen any video. I mean, there's the memory of the wind that sounded like a train and what the trees behind my house looked like in that wind, but that's it. When I used my precious phone charge, I was mostly looking for information about how to get out of my town or whether there was gas anywhere. 

This road is still blocked. 

I thought I would be all over the news, once I had my power back. But I can't watch it. 

My heart hurts. I feel so very blessed and lucky. I told myself that throughout the storm, that we were lucky to be together and safe. Every time I lamented the fact that my parents didn't have power either, I tried to remember that the trees that crashed into their power lines could have just as easily hit their house. Or their neighbors' house.

The trees in front of my parents' house. 

 I would catch updates from my aunt in Maryland, living without power and with two feet of snow and feel relieved that at least we didn't have any snow. I tried to only vent on social media, to only whine after my kids were asleep. 

My kids, by the way, were amazing. So resilient and positive and able to entertain themselves in the half-dark. They are way tougher than their parents. 

Now I'm just looking for ways to help the people not as blessed as I am. Mashable has a good list for people not in the area. 

Irene Recap and Giveaway Winner Announced!

Congrats to DavisMusic, winner of the giveaway! This was kind of fun. I may have to do more of these in the future. 

So, you know, Irene. Not as big of a bitch as I'd expected, but still nasty enough to appear on any Real Housewives franchise. We have not lost power yet, which is wild. We lost it several times during storms last winter, so I'm pretty shocked. We have had a lull:

And there is much flooding:

But I feel damn lucky. Even if I can't leave my town because roads are blocked with water and/or trees and I only got 3 hours of sleep and the news keeps harassing me with dire predictions* and the wind is picking up again and we spent way too much money on water, batteries, light sources and muffins.** The kids seem to be handling things well, except they somehow conned their father into putting up his tent in the living room. And they're going to sleep there tonight. Which really means 2 nights with no sleep for mommy. But that's all okay.

Hoping everyone gets to go back home, gets their power back and gets their houses fixed quickly. 

*BTW, is there anything else happening the world right now? Or are you all just sitting around watching Irene reports and eating potato chips? 

**Muffins protect you from hurricanes. Obviously.