BLACKOUT 2003!

Whoa! OMG! It was certainly a funky 24 to 48 hours! We finally got electricity here in my section of Brooklyn at 3:30pm Friday afternoon. [Turned the A/C on right away.] I was working on my bills at the time in my kitchen, in particular the Con Edison statement. Weird ... huh? Windows wide open and curtains drawn back to let in all the sunlight.

At work, on Thursday, I was in the middle of typing an email to my friend Nancie in DC/VA area when the blackout hit. Our large office building immediately kicked on the generators, so we'd have some lights and have at least two elevators operating. Everyone in the office, after 30 seconds of silence, were like ... "what the f--k?!?" One of the partners I'm currently covering called his wife in NJ and they had no power. Looked out the windows from our 28th floor and no lights anywhere, even the traffic lights were out. Believe it or not, some folk in my office continued to work, while others like me, walked around chatting with co-workers.

Our phones died about 20 minutes after the blackout occured. Before that happened I was able to call my Mom and learned they were blacked out too. My parents live in upstate NY near VT. Also called Josee in Quebue to ask her to check the news on telly. In middle of our call the phone line dies. Stayed at the office until 7:25pm hanging out with co-workers. Whether it was on 28th floor, the building lobby or in the cafeteria [22nd floor for free food & drink]. At one point I was looking out of 28th floor window towards westside and couldn't believe the huge crowd of people waiting outside of Port Authority. No one was letting them in to access buses! [Same held true later on when I was riding crosstown bus and saw the huge crowds outside of Grand Central Station.]

After 7pm the PA announcement [fire warden] said they were shutting down both elevators and basically wanted those who where left to either stay on 8th floor [computer center], lobby or evacuate the building. I choose the latter and glad I did. Waited 10 minutes or so for a crosstown bus on 42nd street, which took me over to the eastside. Then walked down to 34th street and East River. [I was wearing a dress that day with 1 1/2 inch heel sandels. I had sore, swollen feet by time I got home.] From there caught a $3 one-way ferry boat over to Long Island City. While on the ferry boat I got to chatting with a few folk and one nice lady [Cheryl] lent me her cell phone, so I could make a quick call to Mom. Once off the boat in Long Island City I walked down Borden Avenue, then over near Pulaski Bridge, hoping the B61 bus would be running. At the bus stop I learned that no bus had been there for one hour! Chatted with a few ladies and one decided to walk over the bridge with me to our neighborhood. [She lived seven blocks past my place.] Thankfully she had a small, but working flashlight. The walk home was about 30 minutes.

Got to my apartment at 9:30pm and I think I know now how a blind person feels. Groping my way down the pitch-black hallway to my apartment door. Feeling the key holes, inserting keys and then slowly feeling my way into kitchen to get matches to light candles. Quite an experience, let me tell you! At least my phone works and water running so I could take a shower. Man was I sweating! Yuck! Even after opening all the windows my apartment never really cooled off, yah know. [Quickly made a few phone calls.] Seemed like most people were outside until almost midnight. Rough trying to sleep in those conditions, but I managed to get at least 5 hours or so of shut-eye.

Walked around the neighborhood Friday AM and most shops were closed. Ran into John, my neighbor, and we talked about "events". Don't know what I ate Friday, but for 3 hours in the late afternoon to early evening, I had a nasty case of the shits. That wacked me out and I was in bed by 8:30pm. Was feeling much better by Saturday AM. Once the electricity came on I was able to go to ATM, cleaners, do laundry and do some grocery shopping at local health-food store. All while I was feeling ill. On Saturday I took care of more chores, shopping, farmers market, pharmacy, emails, get a manicure/pedicure, etc, etc. Now its sunday and I'm just going to take it easy.

Also, on Thursday, I had a lunch date with a chap who's name is George and is Scottish. [Ate at an Irish Pub in Times Square.] Met him via Yahoo Instant Messenger on the Internet. He's a nice, older chap and we had a nice time. Wasn't romantically attracted to him [no sparks]. His conversation was amusing ... but really have no intentions of seeing him again. Other news ... I finally took the last two exams at work and my overall scores were about average. Plus I applied for two more positions which I hope to interview for shortly at work. Stay tuned.............