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\nThey’re saying tomorrow. UPDATE: now they\u2019re saying Friday. FRIDAY??!!<\/i><\/p>\n
I went and charged my phone in my nearly buried car. My laptop is on its last legs. I texted Mitchell to see how they were doing in Puerto Vallarta and within 30 seconds I received a video of a drag show they were attending. Cartels may wild out, but nothing can stop drag. What I texted to Mitchell though was “cartel shmartel”. It’s been really weird to have no power, but then I remember having no power for two weeks<\/i> after Hurricane Sandy and having to walk up to a random Red Cross truck and ask the guy if he could give me some tampons. He did. It’s hard to express the chaos we were tossed into. Gas rationing. Streets blocked off for two weeks. I was working at Martha Stewart at the time as a freelance producer and the entire first floor of her building was underwater so I was out of work for weeks, which was hair-raising because I was BARELY paycheck to paycheck at the time. I was barely making it. Shopping in the bodega, pitch black, all the customers were holding up their phones with flashlights. I was also going through a breakup, which I never mentioned here, and so going through the hurricane totally by myself was really bad, since literally 3 or so days before, he was all in. People come and go so quickly here, as Dorothy says in Wizard of Oz. Humorously, even though the “relationship” only lasted a couple months it was intense enough that he had already gotten a tattoo “for me” (he was covered in tats, so this was just one more), and now he’s stuck with it – a tattoo for a woman he BARELY dated, and I think of that sometimes and it cracks me up. It’s funny now but it was NOT then. In a way the Sandy chaos was a welcome distraction – as awful as that might sound. The emergency situation focused me. I had to go to Dunkin Donuts down the street to charge my phone because they happened to have the only working outlet\/electricity in my entire town. Everyone showed up there and took turns charging. Nobody flipped out in Karen-like fashion. We waited our turn. It was somehow comforting because things were getting real bad for me in 2012 – the crackup to end all crackups was coming, which would culminate in me by myself in Memphis<\/a> for 10 days – because my tattooed guy – a huge Elvis fan – and I were supposed to be making the trip together, New Year’s Eve in Memphis! and even though the “relationship” vanished into thin air, I went to Memphis anyway. Alone. As my family back home organized the intervention that would save my life. Hurricane Sandy lingered for months and Rockaway – to this day – will never be the same. Even just writing all that out puts some perspective on having a couple days without power. I cooked a bunch of food the day before, I have plenty of stuff. I am working on literally three pieces at the same time and I am doing it old-school: by hand. I never really gave up writing by hand so I’m kind of digging it. And I’ve read three more Shakespeare plays, so I’m making good progress on my project. February has been eventful. I was basically gone from home for the first three weeks, then I come home and am immediately buried in snow, snow so deep I haven’t left my neighborhood since I got back. A month of extremes. More snow tomorrow – this is insane – but they’re saying it’ll just be a “dusting”. I have learned about Frankie that if I talk to him in a normal tone of voice, he gets scared and skittish. But when I talk in a cooing little baby voice, he comes over and cuddles and purrs. So he really has been traumatized in his life and I need to be mindful of that because if I just say “Are you hungry?” – because yes I do talk to him – he sits there and stares at me, waiting. A little tense. But if I say, “Hey little boy do you need more fooood?” in a little baby voice he comes over and starts weaving his body through my legs. He’s so dear. I type this by candlelight. We’re doing fine. <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They’re saying tomorrow. UPDATE: now they\u2019re saying Friday. FRIDAY??!! I went and charged my phone in my nearly buried car. My laptop is on its last legs. I texted Mitchell to see how they were doing in Puerto Vallarta and … Continue reading