Smells like home to me

So I had some beautious skype sessions and I felt they needed to be shared.

Skyping is so weird because I go about my day as per usual, and then I skype home and am reminded that life is totally progressing on without me. But like in a totally positive and exciting way. Ja feel?

I don't know

I was just having a normal conversation with my dear brother and we were joined by the crew. Shouts to Nora, Ella and Isabelle

I asked if I could have dinner with the fam because they threatened to hang up on me in order to eat. Selfish. 

We ate together

And then Neebs showed me her new moves... hahahahhaha just look at those blurry spindley legs go!

AND NOW FOR THE COMPARTMENTS

I just remembered that I can use the dictation thingy on my lap top that means I don't have to bother typing any more and this came out:

I wasn't sure what to blog about because I something interesting is happened to me recently that's one thing that has been a huge that has been a part of my last seen each year has been having won out at all on menu kinesis O yes I have that and walking pneumonia something in the toilet cough)

I preferred typing anyway. What I was trying to say is that I wasn't sure what to blog about because nothing that interesting has happened to me recently. However I have had mono these past couple weeks. It started as a cough and a cold or whatever but 3/4 weeks down the line and I'm still feeling crappy so we went to the doc (incidentally she is a paediatrician, so I was staring up at clouds and nautical themed mobiles on the ceiling as she listened to my chest. I wonder if I could have passed for a harrowed teen mum...) and she took my blood, not all of it, but enough to determine whether I really did have mono etc etc. She at first said I had "walking pneumonia" but it turns out I had mono all along and that lead to the pneumonia.
When she told me what the results of my blood test showed she was typing away at a computer and said
"I'm just confirming the presence of the chlamydia nefdghgh..."
I didn't hear the last part but could have sworn she just told me I have chlamydia.
DONT WORRY DAD, I found out that "chlamydia pneumonia" is just the name of the aggressive bacteria that causes pneumonia.
She gave me a crayon plaster and a sugar free lolly pop. She's my fave.

I was also in the play "3 pieces, Autumn at Packer" which consisted of 3 one act plays, each with a different director and cast. The play I was in is called Pullman Car Hiawatha by Thornton Wilder, although I haven't studied the play my self I'm told it is very similar to Our Town by the same dude.
The character I played is very similar to Emily in Our Town, I die pretty early but I eek out my passage into the next life for as long as poss. Most of us in the collective cast were confused by the pieces we were performing at one time or another but it was incredibly fun and I had the best time despite being a bit useless sometimes being mono-ey and whatnot.

1930's sickly housewife look 

Bitch is classy 

Tom foolery backstage

I love ma pullman car ladiez

In other news

I was here when the first new york snow fell. Seems like the east coast was having a bad time of it what with super storm sandy and then they predicted a snow storm.
Have no fear, if there was a snow storm, again it happily bypassed me. It snowed a bit through the night and was beautifully sunny the next day so it all melted. Here are some pics for yeh:

The flash on my cam made them go a bit weird but here this is anyway.

 MAGICAL

iPhone quality is considerably less. 

After my mother bugged me about how little I had to done to help new york recover, I made this: 

A Hurrication (hurricane/vaction) Survivors Cake. 

I think she wanted me to make dinner, or serve at a soup kitchen of some sort, to help the still homeless people or people without power... 

So I made a heavy chocolate cake... for us. 

Doesn't it look incredible?!

It tasted like shit. 

ELECTION DAY. err ma gurrd.

Right. Election Day. Being in america during this tense time has been an exciting new experience for me, ask almost anybody about it and things get heated. They agree vehemently.
Seriously though, a lot of people weren't certain who was going to win, and it was close a close race. What I found the most interesting is the difference between the campaigning here and at home. "Apathy" is the way me mam put it and I think that's so true of the way people treat the elections at home. Much more money is put into the advertising for a start, every time I'm working up a royal sweat on the elliptical (cross trainer to me and thee- thats right, I work out.) there were whole shows and channels dedicated to the election in the preceding days, quoting all kinds of facts and figures. Similarly, borough candidates air advertisements literally slamming their competitors. Zesty.
I was going to say more things but I'm tired. So here is a whole bunch of pictures of blue election day pancakes that Nora made me.

I feel like they cook the more you look at this picture.

Red mug, white plate/milk, blue PANCAKES.

That's right, it got sexual.

That's right, my hand is mad wrinkly.

I also went to church on a totally different day, the incense nearly choked me to death but look how wicked that is.

It was like they were encouraging us to have a religious experience. 

I don't know what to name this one

I dicked on halloween but I enjoyed it, I sat on the stoop with Murray in my zebra onesie, eating candy and intimidating children all night.

I like laffy taffy.

                                              

Champions. 

Hurricane Sandy

I promised to blog about this. I received a whole bunch of worried messages through all mediums, (thank you to whoever sent the pigeon) inquiring after my safety so to satiate you all here is a blog proving that I am well. Also our internet was down for a while so that is why this is happening now instead of then. 

As I was on the way home from the gym on what I thought was a calm Tuesday afternoon, I glanced skywards to see clouds gathering way above me. As I was looking up, a bulbous rain drop fell and hit me square on the forehead. Within seconds another droplet hit me in the same way, and another and another. I had not noticed it until then but the wind had picked up and was whipping my sweat drenched hair around my face. 

I knew what this meant. 

The weather here is different, rain showers come quickly and soak you through.

I stopped staring at the sky and began to run home, fatigued by my fat burning, calorie busting workout for champions,  hoping to God I would not be caught in the worst. The rain pounded my bare skin as the wind whipped the leaves off trees and into my eyes. I ran like...Achilles(?), against the raging storm, batting airborne litter and cats from my path. I thought for a second that maybe I should have saved the stray but the words of my grandma rang in my ears: "don't be a hero because we all love you lots and lots. Send us an e-mail and tell us all about it. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" plus, cats are shit. So I charged on through the evening. 

As I rounded the corner I heard an almighty CRACK and a towering tree left it's mooring and fell into my path, missing my clownish feet by mere inches falling right across the road. I didn't have a mirror or a camera on me but I'm sure panic flashed across my face in a really beguiling and devilishly beautiful way as I warred with nature. 

" DAMN YOU SANDDYYY" I cried as I vaulted high over the twin trunks, Lara Croft (and by that I mean Angelina Jolie) style, landing with a safe double back handspring triple Arabian lay out finish. 

(I've been watching a lot of Make it or Break it recently) 

Just as I thought I had overcome the worst, a trash can lid smashed into a window to my left, shattering it into thousands of little pieces, raining shards down onto me and the street. I was terrified and now bloody but I had not a moment to lose. I brushed the pieces from about my bountiful person and strode on.

This was it, the home stretch. I legged it through the sheer chaos around me, cursing the fact I'd chosen to wear a white t-shirt today. 

After what seemed like an eternity and only seconds all at the same time, I reached the front door and fumbled with my keys. My fingers were so cold and wet that they did nothing my brain was telling them to, my usual dexterity replaced with embarrassing clumsiness. Moreover, I had left my glasses at home and I'm rationing contact lenses so I couldn't see a fuckin thing with this ghastly rain all up in my business. 

In a moment of desperation I tried using my finger to open the lock, but it proved surprisingly fruitless so I returned to the key hunt. Relief washed over me and replaced the fear and insanity as i found my keys. in the nick of time too, because my face was mainly soaked by tears of a hero instead of rain now. 

I cursed loudly and entered the warmth of the house.

 At least now I didn't have to take a shower. 

And that was my encounter with hurricane sandy. Only the events have been changed for your entertainment. 

Ok, that was entirely silly and a colossal waste of your time. Truth is, I'm living in the part of Brooklyn that thankfully WASN'T evacuated. Red Hook in "Zone A" was evacuated and it was lower manhattan that suffered the worst at first with epic flooding and power outs. I didn't actually realise how bad it was until I watched the news in the morning. I can't quote any facts cause the Internet has been out till now and no internet was really the worst we had of it... We didn't have any power cuts or flooding and no trees fell into the house. No windows shattered or cats flew at me. I lived through my first hurricane utterly unscathed.  

We've haaaave however had a week off school because the subway system is so badly damaged. Not only has the influx of water caused electrical fires in some places and damaged the tracks, it also means they are littered with debris that will takes ages to clear away. All the major bridges were closed and even now there has to be at least 3 people in the car or something to get across. I heard that approx. 100 houses burnt in one area because the wind just whipped the flames from one house to the next and the fire dept. couldn't reach them due to all the floods... nobody was hurt thankfully but the death toll overall was 40 last time I checked. 

This is all I picked up, you may have to do some googling to verify. 

We went for a walk the next day to check out just how bad the damage was in our area and here are the pics from our gander...

This was actually taken on a totally independent day from the storm but I feel like it fits with my story...

This is not my photo and Emily doesn't even know I stole it but I feel it illustrates how the storm was worse in other places.

Also not my photo... see above. 

I was going to upload this only and be like "SHIT A HURRICANE CAME aaaannd this is all that happened. We're all fine"

Ella in mid flow

DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR?! Ohh there it is with a branch through it. 

"whaat happenneddd?!"

Thats right. It got a little bit sexual.

Domination.

Take THAT Sandy.

Sandy was feelin cheeky and hid this persons car in a shrubbery. Ohhh no wait, that's a tree. 

I swear I didn't do it. IT WAS SANDY. 

Sandy was over there too. 

THE SKY IS FALLING DAMMIT

The bands of the hurricane were still coming and it got incredibly windy really quickly and then it was still again. 

I had to hold on to my pimp hat

Armageddon face.

Smoking man hole. (electrical fires... AHH)

Doesn't seem like much, but 3 people were draining their basements, pumping the water out onto the street... 

So. Much. Water. 

fin.