Because the effects of Hurricane Sandy are still very much present for many people in Manhattan and New Jersey… It’s been an interesting couple of days and I’m really not quite sure how to sum it up right now so this post may be a little random in it’s composition … All I can say is you definitely learn alot about yourself and the people around you in tough times.
I found out that some people just can’t hang (my new roommate, “Jay”, who moved in 2 months ago had a nervous breakdown after the power went out Monday night). And then there are some people who have absolutely no idea about how to get through life when the luxuries we take for granted
(electricity & heat) are taken away. A lady who lives in my building was complaining about not having her morning coffee after our power went out the night before.
My roomie, Meg, looked at her hard and said “We have gas stoves.” Lady’s face: Huh?
Meg: “You know … get a match and put it to the gas stove and it WILL ignite?”
Lady: “Huh?”
Meg: “You can just boil some hot water and make coffee that way.”
Lady: ‘This girl just made me look dumb but I’m not going to admit it’ face.
But then I’ve also had a couple people around my way, who would normally just walk by in a hurry to get something done, actually stop and take the time to reach out and ask “How are you holding up?”. The residents in my Co-Op building have come out of their shells in general. It was nice to feel like an actual cooperative community.
Monday morning before Hurricane Sandy swung through, Meg and I prepped our apartment and made sure we had all the essentials in case the power went out. (I live in the Bronx area so we didn’t need to worry much about flooding … Just trees and power lines.) We taped our windows and went out to pick up a few last minute things at the store. The water and bread aisles were predictably empty but luckily we had already stocked up on water and dried foods earlier.
And then we came back home and waited and I secretly hoped Sandy would punk out like Irene did last year.
Fast forward to Tuesday morning … Sandy did not punk out. Lower Manhattan is trashed and our power is out. Meg and I ventured out to make sure her car was ok and explored the neighborhood to see what damage had been done. With no power and connection to the outside world, the only way to get information was to go out and find it ourselves.
Luckily Rachel, my previous roommate who now lives in her own apartment 15 min. away, still had power so we headed there, brought over some of the food from our fridge and juiced up our electronics. I worked remotely from Rachel’s place since NYC transit was completely shut down and got caught up on the news. We ended up having two nights of scrumptious homecooked dinners and awesome conversations/debates over wine about the world, people, mother earth and the worker ant complex. It was great to catch up with Rachel and workout together like we used to do when she lived with us. I am very thankful she didn’t lose her power and that she opened up her home to us for a couple of days.
Gas. New Jersey is sucked dry from what I’ve heard and many gas stations are out of gas in our area too. The few that do have gas have mile long lines of cars waiting to get their tanks filled. Meg was walking down the sidewalk in front of our apartment today (there’s a gas station on the corner) and saw that a guy had fallen asleep in his car while waiting to move down the line to enter the gas station. She went over tapped on his car window. He jumped up, looked at her, rolled down his window and said “It’s THAT bad!”. I’ve heard that a couple gas trucks were able to make it across the bridge into the city yesterday evening so maybe this will help alleviate the gas frenzy we have going on.
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| Photo above c/o of my roommate, Meg. All other photos were taken by me. |
After living in New York for a year, I’ve learned that New Yorkers aren’t assholes. They just operate at a faster pace of life that can intimidate anyone who isn’t use to moving at that speed. New Yorkers have an innate will to survive and make it in life which why is they are always on the go. I guess that’s why they say if you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere. I’m
a big believer in trying to see the positive out of negative situations
and I think the Hurricane Sandy gave people the opportunity to slow
down for a couple of days and put things into perspective. It did for me.
a big believer in trying to see the positive out of negative situations
and I think the Hurricane Sandy gave people the opportunity to slow
down for a couple of days and put things into perspective. It did for me.
—
xo, Setarra
