Post Hurricane Sandy – NYC & NJ

Hope everyone is safe after that b*tch Sandy came through town. I thought we’d be okay, but we lost power in the East Village as did the rest of downtown Manhattan Monday night. Losing power was bad, but the worst part was losing cell reception, our only source of information. We had no idea what was happening, and had no idea if we needed to evacuate. It’s funny how I grew up listening to those emergency broadcast announcements on TV all the time, but with no power, it’s all useless. David and I decided to just bunker down with candles, wine, and ice cream.

The next day, we went uptown where there was cell reception to find out what was going on. I read that Con Ed might be restoring power that night and was hopeful. When we got back, we met neighbors and spread the news. It’s interesting how in a crisis, the community all comes together, even in a big city such as New York. Unfortunately though, later that afternoon, David went to Union Square and talked to a guy in a Con Ed truck who told him power wouldn’t be restored for a few more days. Considering we have an electric stove, and we’d pretty much finished the pot of cold rice and denjang jigage (fermented soybean stew, 된장찌개) I had made the night before, the situation looked grim and we decided to hightail it out to my parents’ house in Palisades Park, New Jersey. When we got here, so was my brother and his family since they’d lost power in Edgewater as well. Seven people and four dogs in one house! Not comfortable, but at least we were fortunate enough to have a place to go. Some people had it much, much worse.

So we did what Koreans do best in times of stress. We ate. Bulgogi with lots of dangmyun (당면, sweet potato cellophane noodles) and beech mushrooms, kimchi jigae (kimchi stew), fried tofu, and shredded turnip with spicy yellow mustard that burned my nose as I ate it. Later I made guacamole with my nephew. Today for lunch, I hear we’re making tacos. Again, I’m one of the fortunate ones with family and a place to go. I’m thankful for that. Hope everyone else is safe out there, and I hope you don’t have an a$$hole boss that’s making you go to work in this crazy mess. If so, stay strong!