The Long Fall

What happened to Fall? The leaves changed colors. I earned my master's degree. Oh, and all the holidays, and a flood.

One morning, I awoke to the text message: "So sorry to text you early, but it appears that our basement is flooded and sadly, your room is very wet." I had never been so politely informed that there was an emergency situation. The whole basement had flooded, and everything needed to be pulled off the ground, including my entire bedroom.


My bed even ended up on the dining room table:


And the truth is... it could have been worst. But I didn't have time to think about what could've would've been, because that weekend my friends Courtney and Boris were married. I jetted off to San Francisco, and met up with Ian:


The wedding was, of course, just perfect. I cried like a sad monkey. I was so happy for both of them, and just danced the night away! Couris and Bourtney deserve every last bit of happiness.



Next weekend, as a CERT member, I had the opportunity to participate in a city-wide preparedness drill for New York City. It was really fun. I got there super early so I could get a good wound, and be carried on a stretcher. By the end of the drill, I had been saved:


Brett joined me and about 50 other cyclists for the 2nd New York City Tweed Ride. I volunteered to be the flower lass. Over the course of the ride, I dropped rose petals to add a lovely fragrance to the ride. I was even featured in the Village Voice


I joined my Dad up in Boston for a weekend.


We went to the Boston aquarium. I love aquariums! Really love them! The sea dragons are always a favorite of mine.


I was afraid that with all of my schoolwork that I would miss the opportunity to see the colors change in the Fall. Not to worry, I was able to catch glimpses of color all season long.



At the end of October, Brett and I joined many others at the Rally for Sanity. It was overly crowded, but had the most incredible signs.


We stayed with our friends in DC for the rest of the weekend and celebrated Halloween. Now... normally I'm not a fan of couple costumes (unless they require the couple to remained connected for the entire evening), but this was awesome... and perhaps the most vomit bucket we have ever been.


I have a wee obsession with Harry Potter, and busted out a full-length dress for our formal movie night. I always think that Brett looks so dapper in his formal movie night outfits.


Somewhere in November, I went a little crazy with school work. Fortunately, I have the most wonderful boyfriend. He offered to be my personal chef for the last two weeks of my paper writing for school. The food was incredibly mouth watering, and delicious.


He even edited my papers for me!


After my plans for Thanksgiving took a last minute cancellation, Brett joined me at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The balloons are a lot LARGER up close. And thanks to super secret native New Yorker information from our pal Luis, we had the best view from Central Park.



But really, the main reason that I disappeared this Fall was due to school. Working full time, and attending school in my free time really limited what I was able to do outside of working, writing, studying, sleeping, and being. For two weeks our basement looked like a strategic planning war room:


Much thanks for their support, patience and aid goes to my housemates, who tolerated the extreme of my OCD personality as I prepared for oral exams. But in the end, all my hard work paid off, and I graduated!!!!


I am now officially a master of science in emergency management! Whew! In mid-December, Mamma, Charell, Brett, and I traveled to Jacksonville, Alabama so I could get my robes and walk across the stage to receive my diploma! It was a really incredible moment for me to look up and see the three people who supported me throughout my entire process. My mom, my boss, and my boyfriend, who kept me sane, proof-read, and smiling through it all. They are truly wonderful wonderful people!


Continuing with my obsession about aquariums, Mamma and I went to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. It has a really neat penguin exhibit where you can crawl into a space where the penguins can swim around you.


I love the holidays! I really do! Call me crazy, but I enjoy the decorations, the music, the happiness. Jeph and I spent an evening getting a Christmas tree and decorating it. Behind my graduation weekend, this was one of my favorite nights of all December:



Brett, who is not a fan of the holidays, surprised me by agreeing to look at holiday decorations in the city. As we approached Times Square, Luis called and told us he knew a place in Brooklyn that was better than Rockefeller Center. A neighborhood that really goes all out with the decorations. He was absolutely right.


Christmas this year was spent in Fresno with Brett's family. It was just a beautiful moment. I really am glad that his family is so welcoming and makes me feel really special. Brett didn't get much of a holiday because he and his brother gave their father the gift of new wooden thingys in the front walkway. I'm sure there is a real technical term like wood frame or something, but in his few moments of quiet, he rested. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to take pictures of him with his niece's new puppet Elbert:


And, very exciting... we went TANDEM BIKE RIDING again! We borrowed his parents bike, and even did a little off-road tandem bike riding.


With that, the long Fall comes to a close.

The Insanity

My world's been a bit on the insane, oh my goodness, o so busy side of things. Very exciting stuff... but in about a week, I should be able to sit down and reflect.

Atlantic Antics

On Sunday, I joined my fellow CERT members at our booth at Atlantic Antic. It is a street fair in Brooklyn. We spent the morning talking about how to get prepared for emergencies including creating a go bag, making a disaster plan, and assembling an emergency kit. It was a fun morning with the ladies:


Olga showed off some of the literature we have about getting prepared for emergencies that effect the city:


Ann discussed how to get the whole family ready, including children with this lady:

Restroom Break

Sometimes going to a public restroom can be a little inspiring:

Tornado!!!

I could barely believe it. Of course, at 5:30 it started raining. First, it was light, and shortly thereafter it was harder. I was glad that I had decided to take the subway in that morning. I wasn't feeling very well, and heard there might be rain during the ride time home. I thought best not to risk getting any sicker. My plan was to stop at the grocery en route home and pick up the necessary sicky items: emergency, tea, tomato soup, and grill cheese makings. And at 5:30 it started raining. Of course.

But then... the rain turned to hail, and I received a message from Notify New York for a tornado warning in Brooklyn for the next half hour. I figure it would be best to wait until the warning past, and avoid the tornado. Especially since the hail was getting bigger. Suddenly... the sky went BLACK. And then it went WHITE. And then the rain stopped. Upon exiting my work building, the trees in the courtyard were down:


After stopping for sicky supplies, I couldn't help but notice that there were fallen trees all the way home:



Just around the block from me, someone's roof was blown off:



Even my poor little trees didn't stand a chance against the wind:


Our courtyard was flooded:


And our rooftop was a mess:


For someone studying emergency management, it was such a trill to see all the effects of a tornado. I have never experienced one. I really cannot wait until I'm part of a team that works to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from these types of events.

Thank You Gentlemen

It was a perfect New York evening. Ahem, a perfect Brooklyn evening. My day at the office had been a bit wonky, and mid-morning I was talking to Brett who mentioned that he might be going to Modest Mouse that evening with the boys. I was excited, but hesitant. The Modest Mouse shows I had seen in the past were awful. They were too drunk or too high to play anything. But on this evening, they were perfect. The weather was perfect. Just a slight breeze, and only a need for a light sweater. The beer was perfect. Brewed in Brooklyn, and just cold enough to savor against the dying of summer. The tacos were perfect. Juicy and spicy and enough chips and salsa for sharing. The company was perfect:





At this point, Brett is really annoyed that I have made him pose for about 20 photos, but that's the joy of the digital camera, you can know if its a good shot. Plus it was funny to have Luis trying to get in the middle:


Finally, the ride home was perfect.

Camping!!!

Brett and I celebrated our three year anniversary!! This is quite the moment for both of us. Three years of putting up with one another. Three years of "figuring it out." Three years of happiness!

We went camping last year, and decided to give it another go this year. So, we looked up the Metro North lines, and found a campsite near the Cold Spring stop. We packed up our bikes with the necessary supplies (tent, sleeping bags, box o wine) and rode up to Grand Central to catch the train.


We opted to stay at the campsite eight miles away from the train station believing there would be less traffic. What we didn't look at was the terrain, and upon arrival realized that it was eight miles straight up. Well, I'll be gosh darned if we were going to be deterred. After all, we had some amazing veggie burgers to eat for dinner, plus the box o wine. So up we went. And up. And up some more. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done physically. We would bike until we couldn't pedal anymore because of the steepness of the hill and push our loads up. Brett took some pictures of this, so hopefully I can share those later.

We biked. We pushed. We biked. We sat. We drank water. We biked. We pushed. Continue on repeat. It was one of those moments where I was truly grateful. He knew how to support me, and more importantly, I was able to let him be my support. My type-A personality pushed me on, but I really needed his help mentally. His words of encouragement made me know that I could get to the top, even if it took all day and night.

But 3 1/2 hours later...


WE ARRIVED!!!! After endless up, we got a downhill, and it let out into a beautiful view of a lake. We made it! We had camp set up before the sunset. And those veggie burgers were incredible!

The next day we picnicked at a nearby pond:


Sorry, I couldn't help it. It was only of my induglences for the food on our trip, and I thought it was rather perfect to have the "natural" chips in the truly natural setting.


The pond was created by the damming an old mine shaft.


It was so beautiful, and peaceful. We hiked around the pond. This picture reminds me of puzzles where you have the added challenge of two juxtaposed images:


Brett is quite the outdoors man, and walked around barefoot. Were it up to him, we would have hiked for miles and miles, but I really wanted a nice relaxing vacation.



However, the next day, we went on an eight mile hike up to Beaver Pond. There was no one at the pond when we arrived. Unfortunately, all I could think about was Piranha 3D, which I had seen the night before we left and imagined us as the opening couple that gets eaten by piranhas.


Brett loves fire. Not as much as I love fire. So together, we are fire lovers. On our final night, after Brett cooked our pasta on the campfire, we made it ginormous. A wonderfully perfect end to a relaxing, hike-filled weekend.


What was great throughout our climbing of the mountain, was that we would have the opportunity to ride down it. Now, the last time I rode down a mountain, on my 11th birthday, I broke my hip. So, I was not a big fan of the whole riding down the mountain very fast with a bike filled with gear. But.... it was fun!

I'm glad we went on this journey. I surprised myself with my ability to ride a bike up a mountain, and more importantly, to ride it down. I think the true feat is that I rode up the mountain without complaining. This is why I'm head over heels for this guy. He pushes me, and helps me, and loves me.