Sorry I haven't been posting much.
It's just that I've been busy watching THESE TWO on youtube all day and night NON-STOP while I waited for Hurricane Sandy to blow over.
I saw these two on the new show, Nashville, and thought, "Whoa! How did they happen to find two little girl actresses who sing so well together?!" They play Connie Britton's daughters and they're adorable.
-all three of the above links were different... check them all out-
Lennon - 12yrs
Maisy - 8yrs
Turns out, they're sisters and they're a youtube sensation.
Check it:
They will continue to blow your mind with...
This gem.
And this one.
Oh and yeah.
Whoops. There they go again!
Or what about the little one...
by herself?
They're just toothless babies here! Help! I cant stop!
Now, that may be a record for number of youtube links in a blog post ever in history, but trust me, they're worth your time.
These are what I watched (instead of the news) to calm my fears while we waited for this year's hurricane to hit.
This year, we weren't so lucky as last year. Although I was lucky enough to maintain power and have no water damage whatsoever, my fellow lower-manhattan-ites weren't so lucky. My glorious city was hit pretty hard in fact and it's jolted us all. Half of the city lost power, all of our subway systems have been shut down and the amount of water damage to downtown is devastating.
I sat watching Maisy and Lennon with a blanket over my head - ya know, just in case my windows went (and it sounded like they'd go at any minute). I was afraid that the shattering glass would get blown into my eyes, blinding me forever. The way your mind works in emergencies is funny. For the most part, I wasn't scared. Not until ConEd cut off the power to lower manhattan, including NYU's medical center, and the back-up electricity at the hospital didn't cut on.
It was then that my heart sank for the families of those patients on ventilators and oxygen and the parents of the babies in the NICU.
Warning: This will be the part where I gush about my amazing friends and how lucky I am to have such heroes here in my NYC family.
I knew that Amy (a nurse) was at NYU and that she was hand-ventilating and carrying patients out of their rooms and down the blacked-out stairwells of the hospital and that with the NICU and pediatrics being one of their biggest concerns, that Yelena (a pediatric nurse) would be the one of the nurses to take on a lot of these patients as she awaited their arrival at Columbia. -Did I mention that Yelz had already been at the hospital for going-on 24hrs and that she was short staffed and would likely not come home the next day?- To transport patients in this weather with such short notice and such little acting time with such precision is a testament to the first responders (in every sense) that we have here in NYC. I've always believed it, but this is just added proof that New Yorkers are a special breed of people and that in tragic situations, can pull together like no other to get the job done and help care for their fellow man.
I love these girlfriends of mine anyway, but knowing they make such a difference in a time of need just makes me even more proud to know them and call them family.
The aftermath for us, our surrounding boroughs (particularly Queens, Brooklyn, & Staten Island), and our neighbors in New Jersey is heartbreaking. A few neighbors that got hit the worst are Rockaway Beach (my summer day-trip there is coming up in the next post), and Atlantic City.
The news keeps showing a demolished image of the Atlantic City board walk and it makes me so sad to know that it will never be the same skyline that was the background for some defining, lifelong friendships for me. I've always imagined taking my children there and showing them where I first met Laura or Mike Perkes. Or where Dave and Em's relationship first budded well before the proposal, the wedding, or babies. Or where I fell in love (silly as it may seem) for only the second time in my life. I still can, but it will look totally different than in these pictures or in my memory... Although, I guess that's what happens in life. I imagine Moore's Lake looks a little different to me (in the works to become luxury apartment rentals and a 40acre business park) than it did to my parents and family who ran it.
Dave and I with Mike, Em and the Atlantic City roller coaster & pier off in the distance, Aug. 2008:
The after math of Hurricane Sandy on the same pier, Oct. 2012:
2008:
2012:
2008:
2012:
I'm hoping that if I keep watching this video over and over, I'll remember A.C. this way always.
The good things about Hurricane Sandy:
She gave me a second chance to use the expression 'hunker down' (which I LOVE) and she created the hashtag #Sandymonium and reworked Olivia Newton John's line from Grease to, "Tell me about it, flood."
Otherwise, she sucked.
Yes, if you were lucky like most of my friends and I, she did give us an excuse to miss work and sit around inside eating and watching movies all day, but that also means she got us out of a paycheck. And let's be honest, who wanted that?
And to the families whose homes, lives, and memories were destroyed, it will take so much time to get things back in order, but I do believe that in time, these areas will repair themselves both physically and emotionally. If New Yorkers can bounce back from 9/11, we can handle a little sass from a snotty-nosed little brat named Sandy.
Thanks for all of the texts, phone calls, and prayers from friends and family during the storm! I'm so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life and to have been basically untouched by this tragedy. I cant wait until this city is back up and running! I know it will be soon!
Also, even though it doesn't feel like it here in NYC, today is Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone!
Love,
~Kare*
