Monday, 29 October 2012

Please Don't Kill Each Other During Hurricane Sandy


Okay, I'm getting pretty concerned with how serious the Hurricane Sandy warnings are getting on the news. I'm originally from New York City but I don't live there anymore and it's strangely enough times like these when I miss it the most.   

I love you New York, and I hope that everyone stays safe, warm, and dry and that the subways don't flood so that you are still a functioning city afterwards. I know that this hurricane must be a really big deal because all of your Starbucks locations are closed. I don't know how all of you are going to live for the next 48 hours. I will pray for you.

I find that New Yorkers are particularly bad at handling natural disasters. Maybe it's because when they happen we're used to being on the go and end up confined to our small apartments with our families and only our facebook statuses to express ourselves with until the power goes out. Maybe it's because most of us use our ovens for extra storage space and don't really know that when the news tells us to buy non-perishable items, they don't mean beer, wine, gum, and cheese nips. In a city that's used to having everything it needs at all hours of the night, it's really hard to not panic when Duane Reade, the corner deli, or CVS closes. (Seriously since moving from the city I've really missed being able to go downstairs to the corner at two AM to buy razors, a sandwich, condoms, marshmallows, mascara, a greeting card, and dog food.)


                      
                                                (Hurricane Essentials)

I know right now people there are freaking out about lack of hurricane supplies because yesterday my sister J. almost got clubbed to death by a 35 year-old wielding a can of chickpeas trying to buy the last box of quinoa at the union square Whole Foods. NO ORGANIC HEALTH FOOD FOR THREE DAYS AHHH THE HORROR.

If any of you need to do Yoga though, don't panic-I did just get an email from a Yoga studio telling me that even though the storm was on, they were open. So don't worry you can all still stay fit and have toned asses even at a time like this! I'm talking to you Lulu Lemon Squad! So hurry hurry hurry to the 9 PM class!

All that being said, I am really worried about my family's own safety. But it's not because of the hurricane (even though they live along the East River) but actually because they're all trapped in a small apartment together. We have three rooms (a set up I'm sure fellow New York families are familiar with) so each of them have picked one of these rooms to spend waiting out the storm in. This set up goes as follows:

  1. My mom's in the living room on the main desk top computer sending me emails of pictures of cute cats and videos about pygmy goats, (http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/pets-101-pygmy-goats.htm) along with some angry email rants about how much my dad and sister are pissing her off. She also is enjoying posting things on my facebook not realizing that my wall is in fact, not a message and that everyone can see what she is writing.

  2. J. is in the bedroom sending me emails about how much our parents suck from her laptop along with a commentary about the season of 90210 she's watching and some pictures of fashion items she's pinning to Pintrest and:

  1. Dad's in his office (the bathroom) sending me articles about recent murders that have happened in Montreal (where I live) from his i-phone along with some advice on how to protect myself from identity theft and genocide.
They've all been really really good about not getting into a fight so far, but I still remember Hurricane Irene which I was home for because it was in the summer of 2011.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a rainy summer day and everyone in the city was flipping out because Starbucks and Duane Reade were closed. I was amongst these people. My sister and I had a lot of pent up energy and were bored so we decided to dress up fancy and watch a movie on Netflix, but ended up getting into a fist fight about whether to watch Jackass or Casa Blanca. If you know both of us, you can probably guess who wanted to watch what. (Hint: She's the classy one).

So here's a progression of that fight :
Note the coffee cups we're clutching on to for dear life.

                                                               
My mom had two bottles of wine in the fridge so she and I decided to drink them both. We are both not good drunks (Read: Ability to get wasted after a single glass of wine, or check out this blog post about one of my previous drunken experiences: http://xoxoclowngirl.blogspot.ca/2011/09/what-is-it-about-alcohol-that-makes-bad.html ) and ended up prank calling the chinese food restaurant about 19 times because that was one of the only things open. We were lucky and our power didn't go out even though the news stations had said that it was a possibility, so we got to watch a family movie together and I somehow ended up in the corner hysterically drunk crying because the dog in My Dog Skip gets hit in the head with a shovel.

My dad then told me to “Shut the fuck up” because he was trying to watch the movie which reminded me of child hood nostalgia and that time I cried because I was getting on a bus to go to camp and he told me to “Shut the fuck up" and handed me a box of tampons, a flashlight, and some batteries which in his head was all an eight year girl needed to get sent away from home for the first time.


My family then consumed about two pounds of gummy bears (another necessesary New Yorker hurricane non-perishable) and had a HUGE fight about politics and whether or not Lindsey Lohan was a good actress which ended in our favorite game “WHO CAN SCREAM THE LOUDEST?” and then the next day I woke up on my couch with our poodle on my head and no pants on only to find out that Hurricane Irene basically skipped Manhattan entirely.

If we didn't kill each other through the last Hurricane, I'm pretty sure all three of them will be okay throughout this one-even without Starbucks.



Anyways, I hope everyone stays safe in Hurricane Sandy (Seriously, Sandy sounds like a bitch) and good luck waiting out the storm! I miss you New York!
Xoxo,
Clown Girl



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