Come on Irene!

Sorry for the title. I refrained from using that phrase all weekend but now, I had to let it out!  As all those of you who don't live in a hole in the ground know, the east coast was hit with a nasty hurricane this past weekend.  New York City was a projected Irene target so the city went through drastic measures to prepare.  

Our hospital was evacuated (first time ever!) on Friday because it was in a projected flood zone, and of course, I worked.  It was a war zone! I was amazed to see nurses, social workers, case managers, doctors and nursing leadership working together so well to evacuate over 200 patients in 36 hours (this doesn't even include discharges to home!)  I was proud to work at a place with such cooperation and care for its patients.  I went to the grocery store after work on Friday for some rations and thought the apocalypse was about to hit.  Fairway (on 74th and Broadway) was packed and they were sold out of essentials such as bananas and loafs of bread!  I'm surprised I got out of there without getting into a physical altercation due to stress level.  Last, the subway system shut down at noon on Saturday (although storm wasn't supposed to hit us until the evening and actually came the next AM instead.) We were stuck in Washington Heights so we hunkered down for the storm.

Scott and I stayed indoors from Saturday AM to Sunday afternoon.  Hurricane Irene largely missed Manhattan (though parts of Brooklyn, Long Island, Staten Island, Jersey and upstate NY are suffering greatly because of it!)  We were lucky.  Scott and I got some quality indoor time to binge eat (apparently I am not good a rationing) and enjoy each others company.  Here are some pics of the weekend.

Battle station! Scrabble, Internet, ginger snaps and white grape juice.  We're set!

Me and our one flashlight.  Apparently we were set if electricity went out because our building has solar panels. We were incredibly prepared nonetheless.

I think I watched more hours of TV over the weekend than I had in years.  We were addicted and sick of Hurricane Irene news at the same time.

I lied. We went outside once on Saturday night.  Scott braved the rain but wasn't particularly impressed.

Irene brownies. Bad idea. They were mostly gone by Sunday.

Had to capture this scrabble board because I won! (I never beat Scott at anything.)  However, apparently "Ya" isn't a word so this win may be up for debate. Scott did allow the word...so he may be to blame for his loss.

Sunday-Funday-Windday!  Hard to capture the wind on camera but it was a windy day when we finally ventured out Sunday afternoon.  The cooler air was a nice change to the freakishly humid weather we've had this summer.

We survived captivity and are still smiling. Hurray!

This is how Scott said he felt after eating so much this weekend.

Puddle and falling tree branch (twig?) behind are extent of Washington Height's damage.  We can't complain!

This was an excellent test of out ability to withstand isolating weather events in the future! Let's hope we don't have to do it again for a long time!