I Don't Know if You've Heard

but, we've got some

up in here.

(This picture is taken in the middle of a flippin' road.)

I've been living in New York, specifically in Brooklyn, for ten years, now. I love it like I love the ocean, which is to say I love it as much as I love any one person. I have wild, you-would-never-believe-it-if-you-weren't-also-a-New-Yorker stories. I was here when the towers fell. I was here when the city went black in 2003. Sublime luck, perhaps New Yorker karma of sorts, kept me in my beloved Brooklyn during the holidays this year. Now I've survived the Snowpocalypse (so far) too. How will I ever be able to leave this place?

Luckily, thanks to the tons of snow and the city's complete lack of ability to deal with it, I won't ever have to.... :)

This is the calm before the storm. Looking back I had a similar feeling to the inner excitement I'd get during tidal wave watches as a teenager. Admittedly at the time I translated that feeling into a rhyme that centered on a chorus of "preeety snow".

On Sunday night, I donned a dress and some tights and my favorite snow shoes and headed out for a little house party in Clinton Hill. I had heard tale that there was a blizzard coming. Excuse me, I am a New Yorker. I am like the postman (who skipped out on visiting me until Thursday) I go out rain or sleet or snow. I don't avoid conflict. I only avoid direct sunlight.

Flash forward mere hours. Where I legitimately feared for my life on a car ride through apocalyptic Brooklyn. Luckily I was with the brand of friends that feel like family. I knew we'd be safe, I just didn't know how. Here's a photo of Jen during the blitz. Nothing like a snowpocalypse to make you realize what's really important in life...

Lots and lots of layers, silver space/winter boots, and glamour shots.

The snow whipped so hard it gave us an ice cream headache. Sean's hair froze flat to his head! We were joking that you could break it off it was so frozen. Sadly this lead me to the knowledge that my beloved, soon to be adopted family, had never seen 'The Great Race', a minor detail in such desperate times. Sean finally battled the car and the snow into submission. Jen and I ran back and forth between him and their home in shifts. We're good cheerleaders. :(

On Monday morning we woke to a world changed. The cars and buses had all been abandoned. They still sit like great beached whales in a sea of snow.

If nothing else, this week of emergency quarantine has taught me to be careful who you marry. It's been a long time since I witnessed any full-time spousing. Jen and Sean's hospitality, even as we openly wondered if it is possible to die of claustrophobia, was epic. I can't believe how comfortable and welcome they made me feel. Sean was like a modern day Disney character all week.

"And yet, through it all, Cinderella Sean remained ever gentle and kind, for with each dawn she he found new hope that someday her his (wife's friend would go home and his) dreams of happiness would come true."

I stayed on Dean street on Sunday night, and when it became clear that no one was coming to plow a thing, I stayed Monday night too. I have seen so many people standing on their car roofs to shovel snow that it doesn't even phase me any more.

At publish time (like daaaays later) this is what Brooklyn was dealing with:

Finally, after realizing there was nothing to be done, and knowing I couldn't wait any longer. I battled my way home to Carroll Gardens on Tuesday afternoon. I could have used a grappling hook at multiple times on my commute from Prospect Heights.

This storm has left me in awe of nature, in awe of my friends and in awe of this fresh loaf of bread from Court Street Pastry downstairs. I am thankful that I live above a spa, next to a pastry shop, and across from a magical store of endless homewares. Brooklyn, I love you - even when you are helpless.

(Sanitation plow stuck in the snow on Court & Sackett)

So now you've heard, we got some snow...
Here are my favorite bits of media that I have read about Snowpocalypse 2010 since being able to breathe use the internet again.

• Cops Make an Example of Brooklyn Icicle
• Time lapse of the Storm (via @SwissMiss)
• NYT Snowday Pics