A lot can happen in a week, especially when not much "happens".  We live in an area that has been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.  I went back and re-read my last blog post and so many things about it seem frivolous in light of the week we all just experienced.  Who cares about yoga pants, board games, and foot massages when homes are destroyed, lives are lost, and productivity grinds to a halt.  Yes, I was advocating "slowing it down", but I didn't mean for it to STOP.  My usual productivity stopped, so not much "happened", but I feel like so much is different this week from my Pollyanna attitude of last week.

One of many fallen trees has ripped down
power lines, blocked sidewalk,
obstructed road

Yes, a lot happened.  This is the first time I've sat in front of a computer in a week.  All of my "news" has been local - obtained from the Facebook feed on my phone.  Yes, I know, first world problems, but I truthfully kept it all in perspective, and didn't complain - or at least tried not to.  I was "inconvenienced" by Hurricane Sandy. Our house came away relatively unscathed.  A few branches fell, our home had no structural damage (as we have been able yet to determine), and we have a gas hot water heater with a gas pilot.  While we lost electricity, we had hot water at home and could shower.  A mere block away, families lost half of their homes because massive trees fell and crushed them.  Given that, I'd say me without a computer is a mere inconvenience.

We had lots of candles on-hand, so dinnertime was "romantic".  Well, those dinners we actually ate at home were candle-lit, because we were so fortunate to have wonderful friends who opened their homes to us for meals, device-charging, and warmth.  We only ate evening meals at our house twice throughout the 5 days we were without power.  One friend lent us a camping lantern, and that's when my "pioneering" instincts kicked in.  On our walks home, I would tell the boys to gather downed sticks and branches for fireplace kindling.  My husband, who never camped a day in his life (putting up a tent in February with your fraternity brothers, building a huge bonfire, and getting completely drunk until you pass out in front of said fire doesn't count as "camping") wondered, "What the heck is that crazy broad up to now?"  We used matches to light the burners on our gas stove so we could cook up food before it went bad.  Luckily, our fridge wasn't overflowing with food, so this was manageable.  We monitored the freezer contents, and as something thawed out on it's own, we figured out what we could make with it, and ate it.  If someone invited us for dinner, we brought whatever was thawed.  It was turkey burgers one night, beef another night, shrimp a third night - we didn't fare too badly.  We also have eaten more meat than I've eaten in many weeks, so I feel like I've actually been overindulgent.  Let's not even mention the mounds of Hallowe'en candy I've eaten.

A home (and 2 cars) crushed by fallen trees.

So, within a week, my mindset has completely shifted.  Instead of wondering how many emails I'll send in a day, when I'll be able to browse the internet for more yoga pants, when I'll be able to hit the gym, what night I'll be able to catch up on my DVR, I needed to wonder about other things.  With electricity removed from my life, I had to wonder about how long I could go without doing laundry and how I could work out the logistics once it was time to do laundry.  I had to plan out when and what path to walk home from friends' houses because without streetlights to guide us, it was really unsafe.  There was no "work" for a week, but before people think it was a vacation, it was anything BUT.  I may not have created lessons, graded papers, or interacted with students, but I certainly worked: keeping in touch with friends via text messages, updating my family who were unable to reach us by landline, reading info feeds on Facebook that reported news of damage cleanup around our area, not to mention the fact that everything takes twice as long when you don't have electricity.  By the end of the day, I was more exhausted than I usually am after a full day of work.  I'm sure the emotional toll had an effect, but I slept soundly for 8 hours a night (maybe it was SO cold in our house that my body went into hibernation mode.)

In the past week, you could say "nothing happened" in the sense that I wasn't productive my usual way, but a lot happened, including surviving a hurricane and changing my perspective.  I'm so grateful for the small losses we had to help us notice and appreciate the bigger picture.

Thank you for reading.
Namaste.