at least i made it in before the end of the year...

well, hello there.  seriously, if you're actually reading this, you probably deserve some kind of award for actually clicking on my blog in your feed.  because, you know, i've all but abandoned you.

sad, really.

and i'd love to have a good explanation..

oh, i do.  so, there's that.

so i had been offered that job which i started.  and i had that gallstone attack that required surgery.  but we've missed HUGE CHUNKS of my life (which i'm sure you barely care about).

now, october passed as octobers do.  i had held off on scheduling my surgery because i'm a fucking pansy and i didn't want to have it done.  we were preparing for the scatter-mom's-ashes cruise on october 29.  and i was working full time and taking 12 credits (which is, like, full time.  isn't it?  it sure feels like it).  so my days consisted of waking up, working, homeworking, sleeping.  wash, rinse, repeat.

i scheduled my surgery for the tuesday before thanksgiving so i could have a few (paid) days to recoup without actually missing a lot of work.  i ate carefully to avoid enraging my delicate gallbladder.  i hung out when i had time, attended school like a good girl, and spent a fuckton of time on homework and research.  the days passed quickly, one week bleeding into the next.  suddenly it was the end of october and time for croozin'.

my brother and sisterfromanothermister were going to the fest in gainesville before the cruise and we were spending a couple of days visiting friends in tampa.  we planned and checked weather and packed and checked weather...

...and suddenly, this storm named sandy was becoming a concern.

it was scheduled to hit florida and the bahamas before we were, and hit new york after we left.  i obsessively checked cruise websites and watched as the monarch (the same ship we were sailing on) sat in port canaveral for four days instead of sailing to the bahamas.  i read about ships missing ports and hitting really rough seas.  i worried about my brother and sisterfromanothermister's first cruise sucking.  we kept planning and kept an eye on the storm.  they weren't too worried about it.

that story changed once we were in florida.

suddenly, the jersey shore and south shore of long island are full of people freaking the fuck out - and we were 1200 miles from our home on the south shore.  our things, our cats, our cars (except for my brother's) - we couldn't do much.  i had a friend watching our cats and shit, but really - what could i expect her to do when she only lives four or five blocks north of us?

now, when i say 'south shore of long island', i mean lindenhurst. i don't know if i've ever been that specific before.  but when we were watching national weather broadcasts, we kept seeing them reporting a few blocks away from our house - places we pass every day, places we stopped and shopped.  our house is thankfully on a little hill (one of the only houses on the block that high up).  five blocks south of us is the bay.  one block to the east and one block to the west are both canals.  and two blocks north of us is another small canal.  so we are surrounded by water, with one tiny, old, barely two lane concrete bridge connecting us.

while we were on the ship october 29th, hurricane sandy bore down on long island.  between the astronomical high tide, the rains, and the storm surge, we had five feet of water in our area.  we watched reporters on montauk highway, a few blocks north and east of our home, reporting in water halfway up their thighs.  my friend sent us a video right after the first surge, and there was at least two feet of water running down her street like a river.  how is there current there?

the water rose enough to come over the bulkheads lining the canals.  there were bulkheads that broke loose and rested on people's front lawns.  there were boats that literally washed ashore in the high water and came to rest on lawns.  trees were uprooted, breaking up concrete sidewalks and streets, taking down fences and power lines.

we had an extra round of drinks that night and tried to relax.  there was nothing we could do.

we came home that friday, november 2nd, to a cold, dark house and two dead cars.  my beloved 2005 santa fe, the first car awesome husband @_antgas and i had bought, was ruined.  there was salt water filling the cupholders and soaking up the backs of the seats.  sisterfromanothermister's five month old chevy sonic was ruined; it must have been practically covered in water at one point.  our home was safe and dry;  @_antgas' car was barely spared - the salt water rose to within an inch of the opening to the car door.  the cats were fine, if not a little weirded out.  we came home with dirty laundry and nowhere to do it.  our only remaining car was on empty, and the gas stations were dry, out of power, or had hours-long lines.  we hunkered down in the dark for a few days, waiting.  we filled a cooler with some food and snacks.  we watched family guy on my ipad.  and then a second storm came - a snow storm.  the temperature dropped - our house temperature dropped to 48º at one point.  we tried boiling water to help, but all it really did was fog up the windows.  we snuggled under extra blanket and cuddled the cats.

my dad has an extra car and he said i could borrow it - once i could find gas for it.  once i did, we went back to work.  we tried to have some normalcy.  we showered at my dad's house, relishing the hot water, went to work, ate dinner out, and came home to a cold, dark house with nothing but candles and flashlights.  our area had no power for 13 days (we were only there for 8 of them).

schoolwork had piled up, laundry had piled up, and nary a plan for american traditional familial holiday (aka christmas) had been made.  but i still had my surgery to deal with.  which went well.  i spend a couple of days sleeping and eating percocet, hanging out and watching like every fucking episode of american dad, and then went back to work with minimal pain.  i feel much better now.  even though i missed thanksgiving for all intents and purposes.


things are roughly back to normal.  however, my stress levels are not.  everyone was chalking my stressy attitude up to work and finals, but finals are over and i'm still stressy.  i'm trying to be more cognizant of my demeanor and attitude and shit like that.  and trying not to take shit out on other people.

oh, and our cruise was excellent.  it was just hard to remember how great it was when we came home to all that crap.  which is really sad.  but we enjoyed ourselves, scattered mom's ashes, and saw some friends in the process.  expect a blog with some photos of the cruise at some point in time.  i mostly promise.