Home Again, Home Again, Jigeddy-Jig!

Home.
It is actually good to be home.
Sometimes when I get home from a trip like that, I'm really sad and wishing I was still away. But I surprised myself last night when I was really happy to be home. Content. A good feeling.

My dad picked me up and took me out to REAL Mexican food for dinner. Ahhhh that hit the spot! I got home and unpacked my FOUR, yes FOUR bags and got everything organized and put away. I have loads of laundry to do today, but otherwise everything is kind of back in order.

I went over to Mom and Dad's to give them some gifts I'd brought them home and, of course, to see the Monti Dog! I really missed him :) I got him an I <3 NY T-shirt and it looked so cute on him. My dad took pics with his phone, so I will post them once I get them from him.

We watched the Jimmy Fallon that Gina, Jules and I went to and in the front audience view, I can pick out Gina because she was under a light. And in the back audience view, I can totally see Julie's hair and sometimes my hands clapping up in the air! Pretty fun. Jules says she was hoping for a front view, but I think we were too far up - but there are lots of nice shots of the back of her head!!! LOL.

On my way home, I stopped by the grocery store. I had been dying to check out the price of my coffee. I normally pay ZERO attention to the price of things, but every time I bought a bag of my coffee in New York, I was so shocked that it was $12.99 a bag!! I kept wondering if I was paying that at home and not noticing or what?!? I was thrilled to find out that, here, my coffee is normally $8.99/bag and is currently on sale for $6.99/bag. Whew! I got the few things I needed and noted that literally the bill was 1/2 what I was paying in NYC in general.

It was fun to drive my car, windows down, cool air blowing in... and nice to sleep in my own bed, too. Although that is more of a sentimental thing because my apartment bed is MUCH better than my home bed.

And now.... the rest of sabbatical awaits. I have very few plans - so we'll see what comes up this month!

Miracle Month

Yesterday morning, after Gina's driver cancelled because of no gas - I decided to reserve a car service. It's a little more expensive than a taxi, but I figured it was a safer bet. So I got online and made a reservation with Carmel Car Service for 10AM today. I got an email confirmation and that was that.

I never got any other reminders or calls last night which worried me for like a second, but I decided to proceed in faith and know that God had totally come through so far and I didn't need to worry.

I went downstairs around 9:15 to get coffee and look out for the car. Around 9:45 a black car pulls up and I poked my head out the door and said, "Are you from Carmel?" The guys says he is and says, "What's your name?" I tell him and he said, "I"m not your driver. I don't have your reservation, but there's another Carmel guy pulling up behind me - I'll ask him."

It turns out neither one of them had my reservation.

So the first guy said, "Let me go ahead and take you. It's already 9:45 and your driver should've been here." I asked if the other guy was going to get mad and he said, "Don't worry about it - I'll call it in." So off we go to the airport. The driver was super nice and en route, he calls in to see what's going on. It turns out my reservation was never confirmed and was ultimately cancelled. I'm not sure why, but that's what the driver found out.

So, again, I'm so grateful that TWO cars showed up at my apartment when I really didn't even have a reservation. God is good!!

There was zero traffic and there's not many people at the airport, so I got through security quickly. I have 2 1/2 hours to wait, but it's OK. I'd rather be safe than sorry right now...

On another note: we passed one of the gas stations on the NJ Turnpike that had a line a mile long, literally. It extended down the highway. So terrible. I really feel for everyone and pray that the situation is relieved very, very soon.

Sniff

It's my last hour in my apartment on 830 8th Ave.
I'm a little sad.
The fridge is empty. I've emptied all the garbage and recyclables. I've collected all the towels and sheets. I've packed (another miracle - I bought way more than I thought!) and now I'm just writing my final blog entry before I fly home.

Yesterday, I took my walk downtown. I went over to Madison Avenue and as soon as I crossed 39th St. it was literally like being in a different city. The streets were pretty empty except for the various workers. There was nothing open. There were no streetlights working. It was noticeably darker, quieter and eerier. It was such a strange vibe that I didn't walk very far before wanting to get back into the electrified part of the city.

The Chrysler Building

I walked up to 42nd St and decided to go east. I got some good views of the Chrysler Building, which is still my favorite building in the city. I went as far as 2nd Ave and decided to start heading back home. So I walked up to 47th St to to back toward 8th Ave and much to my surprise I walked right through the Diamond District. It was so crazy - shop after shop after shop selling diamonds, jewelry, gold. It was kind of like Canal St in that there was someone every two feet shoving a paper in your hand or letting you know "We buy gold!" I'd seen this on Law and Order, but had forgotten about it. Another exploration surprise.

I walked home, went to lunch one last time at Sosa Borella. I had to have my grilled veggies, polenta and goat cheese before I left!! Then came home to start packing.

I had no idea how much stuff I'd brought, I finally had to go out and buy a duffle bag to get it all home. So even though I sent a packed bag home with Gina - I still ended up with three bags to check. DANG IT! $$$$$$ to the airline. Oh well - it's still cheaper than shipping.

After packing, I cleaned out a lot of stuff and took some things to my neighbors. I'd also donated quite a bit of stuff to one of the shelters this morning. I watched a little of the Concert to raise money for the people here. Did you all see Billy Joel? He still sounds amazing!! Then I decided I had better get some dinner. I was planning on going to Toloache one more time, but they were totally packed and it was going to be 2 hours to wait (no, thanks!) So, I just started wandering. A lot of places were really full so I just kept going until I saw Ellen's Stardust Diner. I remembered the girls telling me that the waiters/waitresses sing - so I popped in.

THEY DO SING - they sing all kinds of Broadway and other hits - they are all aspiring Broadway actors. I had to wait like 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it. What a fun place to go on my last night in New York City - especially after living in the Theater District the whole time!!

As I look around my little apartment, a ton of memories flood over me - what a great trip! I am so, so grateful for the opportunity to do this. I experienced more than I can ever recount, I learned tons, I enjoyed myself beyond measure and I got to share it with people that I love and love to be with.

I'm one blessed chicly!

This is where I went to the Dr. last week.
Unbelievable!

Grand Central Terminal

The Diamond District

Internet issues

Hi everyone ... Will do my last posts tomorrow morning or once I get home... Lots of Internet challenges today!

Thanks for reading & more to come...

The Gas Crisis

So everything you're hearing on the news is true - there is a serious gas crunch here. The harbors are closed due to the storm damage, so the tankers cannot unload their gasoline. There are two refineries down in the area. There are loads of road closures which means they can't get the gas to the stations - it is really bad for people - especially those who are relying on gas for their generators.

Please consider donating to the Red Cross at www.redcross.org or you can text the word "REDCROSS" (no quotes) to 90999 to donate $10.

I saw last night that there were people "dumpster diving" for food in some boroughs. In Manhattan, thankfully people can walk to get food and supplies, but the other boroughs are definitely struggling.

Gina had arranged with a driver yesterday to pick her up at 10 to take her to Newark for her flight home. He called today at 7am to let her know he was out of gas and couldn't take her. So she got ready really quickly and we went downstairs praying a taxi driver would be willing to drive her. It took just 5 minutes and a guy stopped and at first said, "no" and I said, "Ok we understand" and stepped back to start hailing another cabbie. He reconsidered and agreed to take her. That is GOD alone! I pray that they make it safely and that the Lord really blesses this guy for helping her out.

I scheduled a car service for tomorrow, but I know there are no guarantees, so I'm just relying on God's mercy and protection to get home safely. I"m really not worried - He has truly protected us in an amazing way and I know He will see me through.

Please do consider donating!

Thanks

A Little Walk on a Gorgeous Day

Loving the orange leaves

This morning we got a travel advisory from US Airways, so I called and both my and Gina's flights are confirmed for Friday and Saturday. Gina has a driver lined up for tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to use the same guy. So we are good to go, at this point, on getting home.

It will be very hard to leave - I've definitely come to love my little apartment on 8th & 50th and could use one more week to explore and get a few more explorations in, but truly - I've been over-the-top blessed on this trip and all I've been able to do. There will always be a New York City to-do list!!

We checked online to see if the parks were open yet - they are not. So we checked the museums Gina had on her list and the Frick Museum was open, so yay! I decided to walk and meet Gina there. I really enjoyed being able to walk along Central Park - even though it was closed - it was still to be enjoyed from the sidelines. The colors are still changing and it is just gorgeous!

Geeg welcoming me to the Frick Collection

Our favorite Belgian Waffle cart was opening, so I decided to breakfast there and have one last waffle & dinges (toppings) and of course... speculoos! SO YUM! It took the poor guy about twenty minutes to get everything going, but it was worth the wait. After breakfast, I got up to 70th St and thankfully G didn't have to wait to long for me.

The Frick House was built in 1913 by a Pittsburgh industrialist. It's a "gilded age" home on Central Park East. They were avid art collectors. There were amazing pieces from all the major bigees: Picasso, Manet, Renior, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, El Greco, Goya, Valenzuela, Degas - and so on... There were quite a few studies of paintings that are up the street in the Met. But even cooler than the collection was the actual house. I kept imagining what it must have been like to live there back in the day - unbelievable.

After the museum, we walked over to Park Ave. I wanted to explore Park Ave. It was fun to check out all the architecture, shops, and artwork. I walked down to Grand Central Station and checked out the Dining Concourse. I can't believe Mom and I missed that when we were there. Everyone was "plugged in" getting their phones and computers charged. There were lots of neat places.

From there I walked over to the library, which is also still closed since it is part of Bryant Park - over to 8th Ave and back home. Grabbed some lunch and now thinking... "What next!?"

Central Park closed up

Trees down in CP

Still so beautiful

Love the fall colors... so sad to leave

Amazing

Empty paths

I love you, waffle boy!

My last dreamy speculoos

Park Ave

This was in front of a hotel
I just liked the way he was sleeping

Artwork along Park Ave

Big Rat!

Loved Park Ave

Grand Central Station open, but not as busy as usual

Shel @ Grand Central

In the Grand Central basement

Juniors

Making cakes

NY Public Library

Another lion

Wednesday Night

It's still so hard to watch the news and see how hard it is for so, so many people tonight. It's very cold (especially AZ girls) and I'm praying for those without power.

Gina and I walked down to Bryant Park, which was still closed - so we walked around midtown and decided to check out cheap broadway tickets at TKTS. We ended up getting tickets for Rock of Ages. We got lunch at Sosa Borella and then came home for a quick nap before the show.

The show was a lot of fun - lots of 80s music :)
And on our way home, our neighborhood firemen were just coming back to the firehouse and we saw the guys we met in the grocery store. We asked them how their spaghetti squash turned out and he told us, "It was missing something." He described how he made it and I suggested, "Parmesano Reggiano?"
And his eyes lit up and he said, "YEEEES! I'll try that next time!"

Glad to help out where I can -

FDNY

Gina and I just went to the grocery store to get a couple of things and we got in line behind some FDNY guys buying food for the firehouse.

They had 7 packages of sausage, 7 spaghetti squash a few boxes of pasta and pesto sauce. They were discussing the need for bread and realized it was on the other floor (the grocery store in our neighborhood is on two floors) and so they RADIO their buddy upstairs and say, "Hey, Billy!! Grab some bread while you're up there!"

Which of course I had to say, "Aww man! That is so not fair!"

We started chatting with them and found out they had been the guys to evacuate the area around the crane that had fallen off the roof of the high-rise - they were telling us that the biggest pain were getting people out who had pets. One guy had a cat in a bag in one hand and a baby in another - he said he wished he had gotten a picture!

Cutest girl ever!

These guys had been working since Sunday without being home. They said it has been totally crazy. They were so nice and so positive - I'll definitely be praying for them and for their safety. God bless these guys.

Our friends from church, the Lusks, who have given us rides every week live downtown and are without power and water, internet and cable. So they came up today to charge up their phones, check email and take showers. I'm really, really glad we were able to help someone out. Their daughter is 18 months old and such a little doll - we loved playing with her this morning.

Gina bought Anwin this cute doggie.
She pants for "dog"

Kisses for doggie

Playing with Shel

Anwin, Katie and Jeremy

City on the Rebound

Morning Walk
Line @ Shake Shack was crazy
Not too much open at this point

New York rebounds fast!
It's pretty amazing actually.

I know that the clean-up will take months - and maybe for some - even years. But the speed at which shops and restaurants have opened is staggering. Part of the bus system was back up by 2pm today. The airports will open tomorrow. They opened 4 bridges and 1 tunnel today. They were also hoping to restore power tonight to a huge block of downtown - Unbelievable!

I took a walk this morning from my apartment on 50th St down Broadway to 33rd St, then back up via 8th avenue. At that time, about 30% of the shops and restaurants were opened even though we were still getting rain and lots of wind gusts. There were city crews out cleaning up and fixing stuff. There were quite a few people out and about.

At noon, we went out for lunch and walked down 9th Ave. About 50% of the shops and restaurants were open. We stopped in at a pizza place that had limited food but they were serving up what they had. I checked out the local churches, hoping to volunteer, but there really wasn't much going on in our area - things were getting back to normal. When I got home, my internet was down so I wasn't able to google volunteering until later in the evening.

I spent the afternoon catching up on my Smashbook and spent about 3 hours printing pics, smashing and journaling... it was a good activity for me today and definitely helped pass the time in a constructive way.

We Skyped with mom and dad when the internet came up and I started searching for volunteer opportunities - nothing was online, but Gina has seen a URL on the news. So I will try to catch that on the news tonight and hopefully be able to volunteer the next couple of days.

The one felled tree in our neighborhood - 50th St & 9th Ave

Gina was ready for a walk, so we went out for dinner - to a little Italian place on 48th and Broadway that has a piano bar. The service was TERRIBLE, but the piano bar was a lot of fun and the food, of course was fabulous! We took a walk down into Times Square and got some pictures - there were not many people out at all, but I'd say about 60% of the businesses were up and running. It was truly amazing to see so many places open for business so quickly. We popped in to the M&M store and they were blaring music and people were dancing all over the store - it was quite a scene!

Noon - 9th Ave - getting pizza - packed uut

ELEVATOR!

Dinner @ Da Marinada

Times Square!

Geeg and Shel

It's Raining - Katie this picture is for you!

Cool recreation

blurry... but cool

ABC news 

Tuesday Post-hurricane Update

I wanted to let everyone know that Gina & I are fine and in some divine grace ... We still have power.

We are exceedingly grateful to God because there are 724,000 people in NYC without power & a great number in shelters.

All the subways, busses, and many bridges & tunnels are closed. The airports are closed. We are praying that we will be able to fly home at the end of the week... Trusting it will be ok by Friday.

We will keep the blog & FB updated.

Sandy Preparation Strategies (SaPS)

Times Square - tourists abound!

It's Monday.
Hurricane Day.
It's supposed to hit NYC at 3pm and last until 3am.
Then continued rains through tomorrow.

Anticipating that I'll be cooped up in my apartment for most of the next two days, I decided to take a walk since it was only drizzly and slightly windy this morning.

About 70% of the stores and restaurants are closed but there are a few diehards out there making their last dime before they have to shut down. My street is pretty empty. All major businesses are closed. The subways shut down at 7pm last night and the busses shut down at 9pm. The taxis are out in full force and a few cars here and there.

As I got closer to Central Park, the wind started to really pick up and as I entered the park, the wind was CRAZY! With no buildings to really block it, it was quite strong and literally pushing me along the path. I decided that was probably not the smartest place to be - so I walked back downtown towards Times Square. I started noticing the various strategies that people have put in place to (hopefully) minimize the hurricane damage. I thought some of them were pretty funny - so I took some pics and have them to share with you.

I've now copyrighted the title: Sandy Preparation Strategies (SaPS!)

1. The Disney Store - the most prepared. They are completely boarded up and the company that did it tagged themselves on the front. Great advertising!

2.  The guys at McDonald's used masking tape! I guess that secret sauce really does make you smarter!! Did someone see this on Pinterest or something?

3.  The genius engineers of Microsoft put sandbags down. I'm not sure how that will help when a garbage can goes flying through their glass doors, but whatev!

4.  Big pumpkins are Halloween decorations or ballast for the planters? You decide.

5.  This is what I like to call the "Hire-a-Big-Guy" strategy. I'm sure he can fend off the wiles of Hurricane Sandy!

 6. Inglot, a make-up store, threw some towels down. I can just see the employees as they were closing last night, "What should we do?" "Ummm, There's some towels in the back!" "OK!"

 

7.  And my favorite is this: I call it the "Screw you, Sandy!" Strategy - we're just staying open. Gelato is served!!

Here's some other funny stuff I saw:

My "Seinfeld Coffee Shop", Cosmic Diner, was  open
for business and packed full with a line!

We sell flashlight, but we not open!