In the aftermath of Sandy

We were lucky. We lost power for 48 hours but we sustained no damage. School and work have been closed all week. Restaurants and gas stations mobbed. Traffic terrible.

We lost power at Target, but opened the store on generator. Didn't have enough power to juice all the fridges and freezers so all the café and Starbucks food plus all the grocery department. Trash.

Today I went in at 7 a.m. to help restock those empty shelves. Pallets upon pallets of it. Yogurt. Cheese. A pallet of milk. Frozen vegetables. Ice cream.

What did I stock specifically? Shredded cheese. Greek yogurt. Gelato. Amy's Organics. Kashi. Archer Farms appetizers and fancy desserts (yup, I got to stock the crème brûlée) and frozen vegetables.

I smashed a fingertip and broke a few nails, but I hope it helped get food back to the people who need it.

And our store has power strips in the café so people can charge their devices. For the first few days, the place looked like a refugee camp.

Hey Sandy!

For about a week, I've been talking about Tuesday. October 30 is my 13th wedding anniversary and it's the first day in weeks that I don't have school, work, volunteer commitments, internship and/or job interviews.

I was very much looking forward to this day.

Now we're getting a category 1 hurricane.

We have filled buckets, pitchers and other spare containers with water. We cleaned the yard, put the car in the garage and scrubbed the bathrooms and the kitchen with bleach.

We ate the contents of the fridge and freezer. Stocked dried fruit from Forks Mediterranean Deli. Have home canned salsa and corn salsa and tortilla chips. Bananas, apples, nuts and mocha bread. Peanut butter. Juice in boxes and bottles.

Flashlight batteries changed. Candles and matches gathered. Electronics charged.

So, we're ready. And right now we're having hamburgers made from ground beef from the farm made with spinach in them, homemade French fries, and the burgers will be served on zaatar bread with Bulgarian feta and calamata olives and a side of cole slaw.

I also stopped at the liquor store for wine and brandy.