Saturday, November 3, 2012

We Shall Overcome, Since We Under Prepared

(This link won't work but what the hell...you have Google) Suggested music: Eddie Vedder's Long Nights
...Like a Cantonese woman selling bootleg DVD's enters a bar, hurricane Sandy blew through New York. Loud, abrasive, carrying terror, horror, and sometimes a Pixar movie. It touched as many of us as it could, and left leaving us to wonder why. Why were we not more prepared? Who is to blame? I understand people wanting the marathon canceled. Even though I wont be able to sell my women's underwear for racers line, Marathongs, the generators can go to better use helping people like Big Ang in Staten Island. Don't know Big Ang? Shame on you. I understand people wanting the marathon to go on. For the city's morale. For the charity money raised. For the chance to see someone vomit on live TV. I understand people being mad at The Red Cross. They haven't acted swiftly enough. The bottled waters not getting to the right people. Their Capellini D'Angelo is under cooked. I understand people being happy with the Red Cross. The amount of food and clothing they collect in such a short time is amazing. They have very patient volunteers. Their Linguine Pescatore is flawless. I understand why some people are mad at other people on Facebook for posting about their every day lives instead of praying or trying to help. They feel trapped and helpless too. They are closer to it than some and see whats happening on the news all the time, all day instead of briefly. They could care less about the perfect waffle picture you took at brunch. I understand why people are mad at people for yelling at them to do more on Facebook. Tragedy happens all the time and you can't help everyone. Why do they only want to volunteer in the wake of disasters, where are they the rest of the time? They only friended you cause you both went to high school together and you requested it on your phone at the reunion and what were they going to say, no? I understand you being mad this blog wont let me do paragraph breaks. Me too. I was lucky during this time. Oh true if I actually had a job, I wouldn't be able to make it, but I had water, power, blankets and my girlfriend. And I posted that people could come over and help themselves to all of it...except the girlfriend. This ain't Hunger Games. ( Does that reference make sense, cause I didn't see the movie) And I was going to try to be clever write some bullshit insight on turning 40. About how things change, and ha ha I lived longer than you thought I would mom, high school friends, and bartenders at Chuy's Tex Mex in Dallas. But not much really changes. We pop out of somewhere that if we really thought about where that is, would make us hide in a giant pot and cover ourselves in carrots like Bugs Bunny in that one episode. Then we learn, we grow, we forget things, we relearn things, we die. It's a Benjamin Buttons world, we just refuse to watch it. I'm still Peter Pan sometimes, but other times you need your shadow to remind you you have one, and everything is real. At forty I'm worried about looking old,(not in appearance but walking into an Apple store and wanting to cry) not ever really knowing where i'll be in the future, hoping people I love stick around a long time and those I do not are always stuck in the longest slowest lines everywhere and maybe get shingles at least once in their life. Getting older means, to me, walking that line about being pushy with your beliefs and thoughts and being pushed over. Appreciating things people do for you and what you have instead of what you're missing. Not bitching about who is driving you to what park at Disney world as you're clutching your free pass. ( I swear, I'm not being paid by Disney...much) New York will overcome. They (or if its alright,I'm going to say we...as I've lived here for ten years now and I'm not going anywhere) have before...WE overcome a lot just to live in here. But we are also rewarded. Do you know how many frozen yogurt places now have salted caramel flavors? But we don't know what lies ahead. Living in the moment is hard, and if we really treated every day like it was our last, no one would go to work, pay bills, or get me my pumpkin latte. A friend of mine passed away last month. He was a sweet funny, hilarious, talented person and it was way too soon. His memorial is the same day as a friends wedding. I'm hoping the day will be spent celebrating life, rather than lamenting the loss of one. I'm talking about the groom (Hi-oh!) That's going to be a long thought heavy day filled with emotions, memories and poorly catered food. We live, we die, and in between we survive things like hurricanes, broken hearts,disasters, Kardashians...nothing changes too much.
>Society, you're a crazy breed I hope you're not lonely without me ------- Eddie Vedder
“If there was a terrible storm outside, but somehow this dog lived through the storm, and he showed up at your door when the storm was finally over, I think a good name for him would be Carl.”----Jack Handy

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