The Great Flood of '08!

So, Sunday night was rather interesting... Laura and I have been on a scary movie binge lately, and on Sunday night we decided we would watch Stephen King's "It". Apparently, the movie is in two parts and (as most works of Stephen King) was about three hours long. So, we finished the movie about one in the morning. Laura had to print some sheet music for school so I accompanied her to the basement to do so.

A couple of our housemates were downstairs watching TV and hanging out, so we chatted with them a bit after Laura printed her music. While we were in mid conversation, water started trickling through the basement ceiling- then showered- and then POURED into the basement! It all happened to suddenly, there was almost 2 inches of water on the floor by the time we got out of the basement.

To add to the occasion, the water running through the ceiling triggered the fire alarm. SO at 1:30 am our house had to file out in the freezing cold as we waited for the Fire Department to show up and clear the house. On top of all this, our residence manager is out of own this week- so the RA's had to deal with a flooded house and fire alarm on their first night without the RM.

So, to stop the torrential rains in our basement we had to shut off the water- COMPLETELY. So, I went to Penn Station... to brush my teeth. Quite an adventure.

In other news, Christmas decorations are popping up over the city:

Oh, and by the way- the water is back on!

Until next time! Hopefully it will be a drier post...

Journey to the Frigid North!!

I was lucky enough to get off work a few hours early last Monday- so I decided I would finally explore the northern parts of Central Park. As you may have guessed, given this post's title, it was quite cold in the Big Apple. But I didn't let that deter me from my explorations!

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to walk through the park!

Weren't the colors great?

A nice shot of the city overlooking the northern end of the reservoir. Ah, I could've just stood right there forever- or at least until I dies of hypothermia.

There was also a very nice pond toward the northern end of the park. I was hoping to go exploring even further, but it started to get dark... I have seen Home Alone 2 enough times to know not to be in Central Park at night! So, hopefully within the next few days/weeks I will venture farther north and have another Central Park blog!

P.S. Amazed that I didn't mention what food I have eaten in this post?

NYC Election Madness!!

This has really been a great semester in New York. I have been lucky enough to be here during the election. For those of you who have been watching SNL can understand how incredible my time has been!

On Monday (the day before the election) I left work to see that Rockefeller Center had been decorated for the next day's activities. This was where NBC News would be broadcasting its live election coverage. There was a catwalk-like pathway running along he building and red, white and blue lights were lighting up the building.

The next evening, on election Tuesday, Julie and I decided we would go and check out Times Square. I was surprised, at first, that it didn't really seem that crowded. However, there were definitely many heavily crowded pockets of people watching the various screens covering the election results. After a quick stop at the Patriotic McDonald's , we crossed to the center of Times Square to watch the CNN coverage being broadcast. We were crowded in with a bunch of tourists and New Yorkers watching as the electoral votes came in. Whenever Obama took a state, the entire crowd cheered like no other! Obviously, New York voted Obama- although Staten Island voted McCain!




Anyway, it was getting late so Julie and I decided we would go back... naturally, if we had stayed only about ten minutes longer we would have been in Times Square when Obama won the election!! Just missed it by TEN MINUTES!!!... story of my life...