~ September 05, 2003 - 12:44 a.m. ~
The Blackout: Part II
Better late than never. I wrote this and then just forgot to post it. There are two entires before this, if anyone cares.We woke up the next morning at 9 when my mother called to see if we had power. I checked a light, and we didn�t. We went back to bed until 11:30 when hunger awoke us. We lay on our futon (it was too hot to sleep in our loft that night) trying to muster the will to cook those steaks and some rice.
�I�m gonna get up now.�
�Yup. Me too.�
�Any minute now.�
�Uh-huh. Yeah, I�ll start the stove.�
�No, I�ll do it. I�m getting up.�
�Yup.�
�Any minute now.�
And so on for about 30 minutes. We cut up the meat and saut�ed it in the last of our teriyaki and soy sauce, with a generous amount of curry for luck. I used just enough of our precious water to boil rice, and we mixed the two together. Portions were . . . meager to say the least, but the food was tasty. Hot, disgruntled, groggy, we called Jakeland, who lives down in the LES. Although she had running water, adequate food supplies, and the means to cook them, most of them had gone bad over night, so she was a little pissy. The fact that Jack was in England at his cousin�s wedding didn�t help. We decided to go over to stay with her (and her running water) instead of camping out at home.
We put some of our water into a spray bottle, enabling us to take �showers,� and dressed in our coolest attire. We loaded up backpacks with clean clothes, toiletries, some rope, a deck of cards, flashlights, all the money we had (no ATMs!), towels, pocketknives, and all the alcohol in the house before grabbing a bus over to the LES.
We were able to buy bottled beverages at a bodega on the LES before climbing up to Jakeland�s apartment. Her roommate, K, was being a drip, as usual, and huffed out as soon as we got there, again as usual. It wasn�t long before Jakeland�s mom called inviting us out to their place in Brooklyn. In addition to having running water and gas, they also had a grill in the back, and were preparing a gigantic barbeque. With beer. Jakeland, who generally reacts in horror to the notion of spending time with her family, recoiled and refused the invite. Tim and I tried to convince her to call her mother back and accept, since we didn�t want to hang around and NOT EAT ANYTHING as opposed to having a barbeque in Brooklyn. Even if it did mean hanging out with Jakeland�s mother (Mrs. R.), who is completely incapable of shutting up. Eventually Mrs. R called back and we goaded Jakeland into agreeing to take a bus out.
Jakeland loaded up a bag of her own, and we trekked five blocks to the bus, which took us to Wall Street. We then walked along Wall Street (where I got to see the Stock Exchange for the first time), to discover that they had had power I the Financial district since the previous night. Eventually, we caught a Command Bus out to Brooklyn.
Our timing couldn�t have been better. The minute we stepped into the R family�s driveway, the power came back on in Brooklyn! We dove for the TV, only to learn that the power wouldn�t be back on in Manhattan until tomorrow, at best estimation. We resigned ourselves to a night out in Brooklyn.
The barbeque was great (Mr. R is a fantastic cook!), and there was plenty of beer and wine, not to mention the whisky and rum we brought with us. Mr. R and the dog turned in early, but we got Mrs. R to stay up late and play poker with us. Tim had a cigar, and Jakeland and I �smoked� pretzels to maintain the backroom-gambling feel of the evening. The trouble was, Mrs. R had difficulty focusing on the game. When she wasn�t running to the kitchen to make us more food (we ate until we were ready to burst) she was filling us in on all the many, various, sundry, and gory details of Jakeland�s sister Genny�s love life.
Oh My God. Genny had been dating her high school boyfriend for two years, but she broke up with him at the end of her first year in college. She is now dating someone else. Now, keep in mind that Tim and I do not know Genny really well. I mean, I assume if Genny really wanted us to know EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of her past and present relationships, she�d tell us. But her mother is apparently very worried about . . . well . . everything, so instead of saying �I�m worried about Genny�s relationships,� she had to start the story from when Genny and High School Boyfriend met and tell us the whole tale of their relationship from start to finish. It took about four hours. And occasionally, she did it right in front of Genny, who was preparing to go out on a date with College Boyfriend.
Now, suffice to say that Mrs. R doesn�t approve of College Boyfriend. She liked High School Boyfriend better, although he was a controlling fuckhead. So needless to say, she was not altogether thrilled that Genny brought a very drunk College Boyfriend over to play poker with us. At about 2 am, I�d had enough of the drama, so I took a shower (oh bliss!) and went to bed.
We didn�t get up until 2 pm, and by then we really wanted out of Brooklyn. Fortunately, the power was back up in Manhattan and the trains were running. Mrs. R sent us back with strawberries and we were thrilled to get back home.
On the way back, Jakeland and I decided to throw a Halloween party, since I�m making myself a kick-ass Anne Boleyn costume. Jakeland is probably going to be Isolde, and I�m going to sew her outfit. We made tentative plans to go fabric shopping in early October.
We hit the green market on our way home, and parted ways with Jakeland there before running home to shower (which was lovely) before catching dinner at Ony. Ony is our newest favorite Japanese place, and we splurged out and got the tasting menu dinner for two, which involved so much food that even we, gluttons as we are, could not finish everything. The evening ended on a high note when we went to our Deerhoof concert, which we had feared would be cancelled. Although the opening bands sucked (again !!!) Deerhoof was simply splendid.
And thus, we survived the Great Blackout of �03. Huzzah!
