Home Safe and Sound

Just wanted to post an update to let people know that we are home safe and sound and our power is back on. As everyone knows, much of the Northeast had their power go out yesterday at about 4:11pm. After wandering around the office for 20 minutes a bunch of us took the stairs out to the streets (that’s 29 floors, folks). Once on the street I thought about calling Denis’ office by payphone, but the lines were horrendous. Cell phones weren’t working, which didn’t matter to me because I’m the idiot that didn’t charge her phone the night before so mine was on it’s last battery-powered legs.

I walked over to Port Authority, which was closed when I got there at 5:15pm, and stood with the other 500+ people waiting for the doors to open. Then I heard one guy say that they were going to be bringing buses over to the side of the PA and allowing passengers to load up and go through the Lincoln Tunnel. I promptly went over to where he said they’d be doing this, and 45 minutes later still no buses. But cops were there, asking people to stay on the sidewalks so that the buses could come through. So I continued to wait.

Finally, at 6:45pm, two Academy buses pulled through. At this point I was panicking because 1) my cell phone was dead and 2) I needed to call CootieGirl’s daycare because 3) they normally close at 6:00pm. So I prayed.

“Lord, please let a 192 bus come through here. I know that’s next to impossible because there are hundreds of bus lines, but I need a 192.”

Ten minutes later, a regular NJ Transit bus pulls up. It’s a 192. Of ALL the hundreds of bus lines that could have come through – it was my bus! I was elated! THANK YOU GOD! I trotted alongside the bus as it pulled up into it’s spot. I tried to keep up with the door, but as the bus came to a stop people swarmed the doorway, and I quickly realized I was further away from the door than I wanted to be. So I prayed again.

“Lord, I need to get on this bus. I need to get home to CootieGirl. Please, let me somehow get on this bus and home in a timely manner so that I can get her from daycare.”

The crush of people was unbearable, but I just followed the flow and next thing I know, I’m on the bus. I was second to last to get on before he slammed the doors shut. THANK YOU GOD!

The bus reached the tunnel at 7:00pm and I was at my car at 8:00pm. I zoomed over to daycare, where Vera was waiting patiently – as well as about 10 members of her family. I was horrified (we are the ONLY NYC-working family in this daycare so the other kids had been picked up earlier with no problem). But she was very nice about it and when I told her about my cellphone being dead she said not to worry about it, that she obviously understood.

I was home at 8:15pm and feeding CootieGirl a bottle by 8:30, once a dozen Yankee candles were lit around the living room. I had the oddest smelling house last night, since I had all kinds of flavors going – peppermint, spruce, mulberry, orange, gingerbread, mint chocolate, peonies, and blueberry to name a few.

I’m sure Denis will tell his story, but he got home around 9:30pm and we just hung out with CootieGirl in our romantically-lit living room, quietly sweating in the heat. Finally, around midnight, our power came back on. Hallelujah! Air-conditioning! We put CootieGirl to bed and collapsed into our own, falling asleep almost instantly.

So this morning we awake at 6:45am when Denis’ boss calls to say the office is closed today. “I wonder if mine is closed?” I asked. I called a couple numbers at my office and got fast-busy both times, so our phones are out. I just tried dialing to the network to check email, and that connection is down – so it seems like my office is still one of the ones without power. So I’m presuming the office is closed. I’ll call one of my boss’s cell phone at 8:45am to confirm that I’m staying put. I feel bad for him – he’s due to leave on a major vacation tomorrow – a week in the Adirondacks and two weeks in Paris. But he’s got a LOT of work that has to be done beforehand and now no way to do it. Poor guy.