![IMG_1544[1]](https://bellafoxx.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/img_15441.jpg)
This is Jack with his sweater I knitted for him. I never knit for other people. I don’t like animals. **whistles**
Isn’t he the cutest thing!
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So last night I was walking home and this woman was ahead of me on the sidewalk, this guy starts talking to her dog, homeless guy I think, or drunk, anyway I walked out in the street to take pictures of the trees with blue lights on them. When I came back on the sidewalk she had stopped to talk to a man walking his dogs, so I walked behind him. His dachshie ran toward me, it was a mini, a puppy mini very small and very mini. I thought, You are a very friendly dog. I then looked at the dog the woman had been walking, and got scared. So I walked on.
Why did I get scared? He had a “HI PLEASE FEED ME!” look on his face, he was also a puppy, and friendly. So why did I run? When I was a very little girl I got bitten by a dog. It wasn’t a stray dog, it was the family pet and I am told I deserved it. Not in so many words of course, but through the years that is the memory I’ve retained. I took the dog’s bone, the dog bit me, it wasn’t the dog’s fault, it was mine. At two years old I should have KNOWN not to take a bone away from a dog. I have no memory of this, my only memory is being told it happened and seeing a slide of me with the dog, and I was crying. The slide is black and white so you can’t even see if there was blood. I have no visible scars from this event either. No marks on my face or arms or legs to ever show I was bitten by a dog.
My scars therefore, must be on the inside. When I see a black and white dog, with a long pointed noise and upright ears, I get scared. I won’t walk down a street if such a dog is there. Big black dogs that run up to the fence and bark ferociously don’t scare me as much. Of course people laugh at me, for being afraid of a ‘little dog’. I get defensive, I don’t want to be afraid. The truth is, I am afraid and embarrassed of being afraid, because I don’t know how to not be afraid.
Yes I got an iPhone5, I actually got it two days before I thought I could, so I took it on my vacation. A vacation that I ended up coming home early from because of, well, lets just say craziness. I’m not sure what set off the craziness, it might have been me ……
After Sandy was the nor’easter, then I got asked to help with mapping the houses that needed rebuilding, which lead to overtime, which I haven’t been paid for which means I am now screwed, its complicated and since I came through this storm rather well off I am not going into the details. Lot less heartache for me to deal with that many.
Speaking of heartache, Sandy Hook Elementary School in everyone’s thoughts these days, then I just read about firefighters being shot when responding to a house fire, in a world where a person can shoot 20 5 and 6 year olds should we be surprised that another person would shoot firefighters? The police responded but before the firefighter could get back to fighting the fire it spread to 3 houses and a car. No deaths reported except for the firefighters that got SHOT.
No subway stories today, I haven’t been on it much since I was on vacation where there are no subways, just roads and cars and idiot drivers. Now I am back and have things to do here.
Signing off, back to the subways Thursday.
There are three things I love about the subway, and by love I really mean hate. Actually there are more than three things I hate, but these are kind of always things. Some things just bother and annoy me, these things, when they happen bring the rage to the top of my head. While I have thought about violence as a response to them, my brain reminds me that a) violence is not an appropriate response and b) you worked in prison, and therefore know you don’t want to live there.
The first thing is when the train is crowded and five people get off and ten people get on. So I’m getting squished and people are pushing up against me to move in, normally I’m standing against a metal pole, the metal poles don’t move! So stop pushing on me people because I can’t move my body is squished against this metal pole.
The second thing is, well let me explain first: if you have never been on the NYC subway, the seats are benches. Some are molded so there are ‘seats’ on them, some are just flat. Sometimes a person will sit down, in a space big enough for two people in the middle (I’m not talking about someone big enough to need two spaces, I have no problem with someone taking all the space they NEED) so there is not enough room on either side of them for another person. Most of the time, if you come over and start to sit they will move over, sometimes it leads to the third item in my list.
People who stand in front of an empty space. There is room for someone to sit down, or would be if the person moved over, but they don’t because this other person is just standing there. They aren’t sitting, for whatever reason, but they are blocking others from sitting down! Makes the rage come up to the top of my head. “EXCUSE ME SIR/MA’AM, DO YOU REALIZE YOU ARE BLOCKING A SEAT A LOOK LIKE A GIGANTIC JERK?”
**climbs off soapbox and packs it away for the next time**
The next day I went out and took some pictures and video. The pictures are on Flickr and the videos are on my YouTube Channel.
Then the Wednesday after the storm a noreaster blew through with nasty biting wind and snow. I know because I was out in it shopping. I am a tough New Yorker (Translation: Stupid). First I went to the yarn store to get yarn for the shawl I’m making for one of the bridesmaids in my best friend’s daughter’s wedding. I was wearing my gray down coat and it got soaked, it is not exactly waterproof. Besides the coat getting soaked, my jeans and every other part that was exposed got soaked too. I came home to change, but I didn’t want to put on my other winter coat, since I would need a coat the next day. The e-mail we got about cold stress, which I at first by cold they meant virus but they were talking working outside in cold temperatures, said dress in layers. I put on my long underwear, a sweatshirt and over that my coaches jacket, which has a fleece lining and is waterproof. It’s not designed for really cold weather, but with the layers it worked out fine. So I then ventured out again, this time for ….. a new coat to replace my gray coat.
The next Sunday (4 days later) when I went to church I wore a summer dress with a cotton sweater, tights and dress shoes. Last night I was back to wearing a coat. Winter in New York. No wonder I now have sniffles and a sore throat.
My friends and family have all been calling, actually they’ve all been calling my mother, who is expected to contact me and report back to them. Since I can’t STAND to talk to some members of my family (who shall remain unnamed) that is fine with me.
If you have been following my other blogs, you know I have am still alive. I actually came through the storm relatively unscathed. I didn’t lose power, wifi, or water. It shows you the extent of the damage that there are areas of Manhattan that still don’t have power and the subways are not fully functional. Even my office has been closed all week. I have a sneaking suspicion there was flooding or some other damage to the building.
In case you didn’t know, the city is divided into Zones. The only Zone that was evacuated was Zone A, I am in Zone C, however, if I lived across the street I would be in Zone B. Think on that. Two blocks from apartment is the East River, and right next to that is the FDR.
The subways were shut down at 7:00 pm on Sunday and 9:00 pm the buses were shut down. This didn’t stop me from going out to watch game 4 of the World Series. One woman asked for food, but the kitchen had been closed at 6:00 to let the staff get home. I didn’t ask the bartender how he was getting home. But anyway, on Monday the storm really started to hit. My experience was chronicled more or less by text messages to and from me. The first one was to me:
“Hi there!!! How are you? I got a new phone.”
Me: “Nice I’m drinking coffee and eating berry burst Oreas.”
Him: “good! Stay in your building. Nothing is safe.”
Me: “What if I run out of pizza?” (This was a joke, I don’t keep pizza in my apartment. I avoid having things in my apartment that I am allergic to, the exceptions are rye bread and stuff my friend buys when she visits.)
Him: “Then stay home and survive rather than go out and get killed in the storm.” (The storm wasn’t really that bad, but he’s protective.)
By this time parts of the city had lost power, mainly from ConEd shutting down some stations to avoid problems from flooding. Unfortunately, there was flooding and they did have problems, which is why people are still without power today. There was also flooding at various MetroNorth stations.
I did go out after this series of text messages, but I almost got blown over by the wind. I was coming down one street and I saw a man run across the sidewalk, behind him was a tree branch, it looked like the branch was chasing him, I turned and another man was hanging onto a tree, I turned back and walked down a more protected street. I got home about 3:30 PM, and decided not go back out, besides being windswept I was wet and cold.
Me: “Wind is scary loud now. Going to put a blanket over my head.”
Him: “I’m sorry, I’m sure it won’t be too bad”
Me: “There is no one outside. That has never happened.” This is the truth, every time I have ever looked out my window, even when it’s been pouring, people have been walking around. I looked at my window right before I sent that text and didn’t see anyone.
Later:
Me: “I take it back. There are people outside”
Me: “I hear them screaming”Him: “Stupid people. Hahahahaha”
Me: “I’m not going out to save them. Fools r on their own.” Seriously what could I do for anyone? The wind was blowing be down hours earlier and it was worse now.
The reason for the blanket was I got an alert from NotifyNYC to go indoors and stay away from windows. Since I live in a studio apartment, I don’t have another room where I can go to get away from the windows, except the bathroom. So I put my laptop under a pillow and took my phone, iPod and flash drives with me to the far end of the apartment, where I sat on the floor with a blanket over my head. Sometime around 7:30 pm I heard talking outside my apartment. Not the screaming like I heard before, so I went to the window (still with the blanket over my head) and peeked out.
Me: “Omg nick! There are police & fd in front of my bldg!”
Him: “What for?”
Me: “No idea. They are yelling at people to get out of street.”
“Ok my neighbor just went out and said there is scaffolding loose on the building in next block and is swinging around”Him: “Oh, that’s really scary.”
That was the extent of the excitement. Other then every so often from outside, “GET OUT OF THE STREET!” The rain stopped and the wind died down. I stayed up until about 2:00 A.M. and went to bed. My lights never even flickered. I had even boiled 6 eggs in case I lost power and couldn’t cook them. Today I had to throw 2 of them out, I didn’t know the yolks would get hard while still in the egg. The next day I went out and took pictures and video of the storm damage. There wasn’t a lot in my neighborhood, but it makes you realize how bad it COULD have been.
That’s my thrilling account of Hurricane Sandy. Hope you enjoyed reading it.
This October has quite frankly, been awful. What with a friend’s cancer coming back (after 10+ years cancer-free), another friend going to visit her mother who has Alzheimer’s (and sending me text messages “My mom’s really not doing well.”), the episode on the Evil Green Train that I wrote about before, and another one that I didn’t write about but resulted in me missing a day from work, to my allergies and asthma flaring up (that resulted in $100 pharmacy bill) and my rosacea and eczema coming back (another $90), I want a do-over please. Oh did I mention, the Yankees got swept by the Tigers in the ALCS and THERE WAS A MOUSE UNDER MY STOVE!
After walking 26+2 (that’s 26 blocks up and 2 over) blocks from the subway, in my new dress shoes, in the rain, my feet hurt, however it is making me forget the pain in my back. It’s a long story and it involves the evil green train on the subway line from hell.
My book was in at the library, or so the e-mail said, however when I got to the library it wasn’t in the hold room, and learning that I needed to go up to the customer service desk, where I had already been and had been sent away, I just decided to leave. I snuck out through the side door so the nice lady at the information desk wouldn’t see me. Some of the people at that library are nice, some are ….. not. Em sent me a text asking me to reschedule her appointment at the nail salon, since I was already in mid-town I stopped at the salon, then I walked to 33rd and Park to get on the subway. Not having received any alerts about the 6 train I was expecting a normal commute home.
As I approached the gate I could see a train at the platform, and it was packed, people were hanging out of it, the platform was as packed at the train. 3 trains later I was able to squeeze on, and I do mean squeeze. There was no way I could reach a pole or a door or anything to hand onto, so I was trying to balance and sway with the crowds. A couple of stops into the ride a seat opened up, people were still jam packed in, but at least I could sit, until we got to 68th street, when the train was put out of service.
This sounds really cold of me but I have to say it, DON’T GET ON THE SUBWAY IF YOU’RE SICK! Or if you have the slightest idea you might get sick, don’t get on the train. PLEASE! Yes I realize someone could be perfectly fine and suddenly have an attack of scurvy and need medical attention, but most of the time I am sure it is a person who isn’t feeling well and just had to go …. somewhere …. on the subway, and then realized they were too sick to travel. Just, stay off the fucking train if you’re sick!
We got off the packed train to an equally packed platform and it took me at least 10 minutes to get to the exit, people were inching along, there were so many people on the platform that the people leaving had to wiggle along single file. I had to get out of the crowd, my claustrophobia was approaching panic levels, also I could see myself having to wait for 3 more trains before I could squeeze on, and I had no idea how long that would take. So I got out, figured out which way was Uptown and started walking. When my feet started to really hurt I thought I could stop, then I remembered I had no money to stop and kept walking. If I had been wearing my sneakers it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I just bought new shoes and wanted to wear them. After all I don’t do that much walking at work so I could break in the shoes there, well they got broken in, so did my feet. Even in my crocs I’m hobbling around my apartment.
Once again I say, I hate the green train. 😛
Right now I’m at the Apple store. I’m here because I wanted to blog something. Something that was profound and I just had to put it down before I forgot, and I knew I would forget before I got home, so I came here, to use their Mac’s and write my profound thoughts and put them out here for all the world to see.
When I got on the Mac I got distracted, by, I don’t know, Kool-ade? Anyway, whatever it is, I have already forgotten the wonderful inspiration I was going to share with the world and since they are closing the store in 15 minutes I will never get it back.
Sometimes I feel like I a such a loser, it is no wonder I am all alone. Yes that is a lie, I have many friends and I live alone because that is what I prefer, but sometimes I wonder if I prefer it because I don’t want to be rejected by an potential mates.
That is not what I came on here to say. Maybe it wasn’t even this blog I wanted to say it on, maybe it was on my sports blog, some thought that had taken flight while I was at the game. It was a long game and well played and my team won leaving me with wonderful thoughts about life and …..
I have no idea what else I was going to say. I have to go now.
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 