Best We Did It! We Totally Survived! the Prequel

Let's turn back the clock to a simpler time, a time called Monday morning when I headed out to look at my neighborhood time before the storm wrecked it (except it didn't).  You have to remember these photos were taken at a time that the city was gripped with fear and apprehension where we were just waiting to find out if we were all going to die or not.

First thing I found?  German tourists.  Because nothing can stop German tourists from visiting Little Italy.

Here's the restaurant I live on top of.

It's usually hard to tell if its been hit by a hurricane or not as is.

Restaurant across the street.  Everyone was totally x-ing themselves out.

Open in the neighborhood: The Chinese supermarket.

And all the Chinese fish markets.  

Community members making sure everything was neat and tidy before Sandy showed up for her visit.

Oh good.  My money's safe.

Open: souvenir stores.  Because if the German tourists are going to be out, they better be able to get some souvenirs.

I swear I heard that they shutdown all the Subways Sunday night? 

This 7-11 was doing brisk business.  Including from me.

If there's going to be a hurricane you better make darn sure your iPhone has got a good case on it.

Most interesting Sandy-prep I saw: All the cars had been lowered from the car stackers.

All in all, you could definitely say that New York was ready to party with Sandy.

Back at home I ate my 7-11 spoils.  I'm still trying to figure out if I loved my $1 sausage biscuit or was grossed out by it.  Which I guess is how I could describe a lot of what I eat.

Something that I know I liked: My loose interpretation of Mission Chinese Food's Thrice Cooked Bacon and Rice Cakes, which I cooked using a comic strip as a recipe.  Let me tell you something: I'm proud of myself for having cooked this.  I'm proud of myself for having used a cartoon as a recipe and making it with what I had around the house.  I'm going to keep making this and adding more ingredients and it's going to become a meal that I try to serve you when you come over.

Anyway, I cooked that for dinner at 6 or so and just kept kicking it around the house, listening to the wind and rain, happy as a clam.

And then the power went out.

Best We Did It, We Surived! pt. 2: a Hike and Highlights

. . . so when last we spoke us poor downtowners were on our way up to Alpha's house.  Let me just tell you it was a wonderland up in that apartment, and I'm not even saying that because Alpha is watching me type this right now.  It reall was great!  There was food and games and TV and everything!

Look at this stew!  Perfect storm recovery food.

But we went back home to Little Italy for the night.  Woke up without power and this morning I wasn't as into it as yesterday.  And also I realized I had left my iPhone cord at Alpha's.  So at least that gave me an activity for the day: Getting back to Alpha's.  I decided I'd walk it and take in some of the major storm sights.

At our building: Safety in action.

Stepped out of my house and was immediately reminded that today is Halloween.  The spirit of the holiday cannot be kept down in this town.

South side of University Village: Big toppled tree.  Really big, totally toppled.

In the West Village: the Road Warriors have taken over.

Another properly toppled tree.

And here's one of the storm's most famous victims: the whole front of this apartment building on 8th Ave.

To me, the strangest thing: All the apartments are painted the same color?

Across the street?  A community charging station.

At the Chelsea Bareburger, free food for all!  

When I got to the head of the line they were all out of burgers, but you know what?  It's an emergency. I'm happy to settle on a chicken.

Getting up to midtown, a proper view of the One 57th crane accident.  Wowzers.  It's really just dangling.

Wait . . . is the Met behind this whole storm?  Was it just to promote their new production?

Once again, back to the Upper West Side where everyone's just eating their chocolate covered waffles like nothing even happened.

Best We Did It! We Survived! Pt. 1

. . . so far, at least.

I'm going to skip my pre-storm post for now to bring you my up to the minute Sandy reporting.

Last night the storm never got very heavy or windy around my house but at just about 9:45 on the dot the lights went out and the candles got lit.

Derrin and I got a text from Neighbor Di that she was having an ice cream party.  See, in times of adversity, it's good to try to give service to others to remember how much you really have.  Our service: Getting that ice cream eaten before it melted.

Di's apartment was so much better-candled than ours.

We decided to take a group trip to the roof.  Neighbor Rochelle had a new head lamp to try out.

Up on the roof?  Unreal city.  That glow of green?  That's the jail.  Lucky prisoners with all that electricity.  The Freedom Tower dark was a sight to see.

Roommates!

Roommates!!

Darkness all the way to the Empire State Building.

Now let's focus on our blacked-out neighborhood.

Something was going on at the building next to ours.  An ambulance came, too.  There was shouting.

We went down to street level to check on things.  A little bit.

These trees were not knocked over by the storm.  They were knocked over by hooligans Sunday night.

Not sure if this pumpkin was wrecked by man or storm, though.

We gave our block one lap and then called it a night.

Then this morning I went out on an adventure walk.  The German tourists were out and about.  Nothing can keep tourists from Little Italy.

Man praying in front of closed temple on Canal street.

Decided to walk half the Manhattan Bridge for a view of the river and city.  Decided not to follow these instructions.

River looked high, but it had already receded.  Wasn't all up on the highway or anything.

It actually got kind of sunny and the city was really bustling.

I didn't see any extraordinary devastation.  Toppled leaves, not trees.

But maybe this guy's owner had blown away?  No, probably just didn't feel like going for a walk.

The few delis I saw that were open had big lines.  Big lines of unprepared people that needed a morning bagel so bad.

Strangest thing I saw?  This guy was rinsing a bag of nuts with water from a fire hydrant? 

All around there were signs like this.

I am starting a new hurricane fashion blog, the Sandytorialist.  Lots of flannel!  And storm braids.

See?  I'm with it.  Also: I cooked bacon this afternoon.  I'd received notice that it was very good hurricane food.

Roommate Derrin sported a sporty-casual hurricane look.

My lunch: Cooked all my bacon then toasted some bread on the pan in the bacon fat, then fried an egg in the bacon fat. Like an Indian I use all parts of the fat.

Let me tell you that sandwich was good, hearty storm eating.

By the evening we'd all had enough of this blacked-out, no cellphone service, no internet lifestyle and headed out.

Hopped a cab to the Upper West Side.

A nonsense wonderworld full of electricity where people are jogging at the gym like nothing even happened last night.

Now we're having an awesome party at Alpha's, eating soup, listening to the news, contacting friends and family.  Surviving, in other words.