So, I’m married, and survived the hurricane.

It feels weird to say that my life feels a lot more calm and relaxed than it has been in the last 6 months, especially considering the past 3 weeks. I’ve: gotten married, spent 4 days on an island (that isn’t Manhattan), and experienced one of the worst storms ever. But I’m finally not completely overwhelmed!

So, first off – the wedding. It was completely wonderful. It was so nice to see so many of my friends and family all in one place, to celebrate Andy and I. Even though I never really got to a point where I loved living there, going back to Indiana always seems to recharge me in a way that NYC just can’t. I’m sure those of you who weren’t at the wedding want some kind of recap, but I think it’s best told through pictures. Wedding pictures!

Our honeymoon was lovely. We went to Key West for 4 days, and enjoyed the beach and riding bikes all over the town. We decided that our budget was best spent on delicious food, so we ate amazing lobster/other seafood dinners every night instead of going snorkeling or on any other excursions. We went to the Hemingway house, which was really interesting and full of polydactyl cats. We’re already talking about making it an annual anniversary trip.

Despite how wonderful the wedding/honeymoon were, my favorite thing about it is that it’s done. Wedding planning is NOT for me. Through our pre-marital counseling, we joked about how were really going to try to make it last forever, just so we never have to plan a wedding again.

So we went back to normal life for a week, which was very welcome. Of course, normal life at the end of October in NYC means one thing: Halloween Costume Preparation. In NYC, Halloween is a HUGE deal to most adults. There are usually days filled with parties, and parades, and even workplaces (well, mine anyway) encourage (or, like mine – require) costumes. We spent last Saturday running around the city gathering items for our costumes, completely oblivious to anything else that was going on in the city. (Meanwhile, the kids get some terribly made costume from the store, and they have to Trick or Treat at CVS and the grocery store. And they don’t get to wear their costumes to school…I have no idea how they learn that Halloween is fun.)

Then Sunday we discovered that we were going to be without subway access indefinitely, and that our offices would be closed on Monday. Like Irene last year, we decided to go over to Kris & Erin’s since they live further away from the water and closer to grocery stores/restaurants.  We ended up staying there through Tuesday afternoon, when the storm was over.

I had a lot of people contact me, worrying because of what they saw on the news. And yes, it got pretty scary in parts of NYC. But not where I live. We didn’t lose power or internet. There are a lot of trees down, and it’ll take some time to clean that up.

But we’ve definitely been affected. My office is in Soho, and it still doesn’t have power (as far as I know – it’s closed indefinitely). The subways aren’t fully running, so even if it did have power, I wouldn’t be able to get there easily. The bus that gets me to the closest train station is running, but it has to take a major detour to get past all the trees in the middle of the street. I’ve been working from home all week, but Andy was able to get into his office today and yesterday. Most of my coworkers don’t have power right now, but we were able to get two temporary office spaces for the people on our team in Manhattan. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back in the office (hopefully next week!). I’m really glad that I can work from home.

We’ll be celebrating Halloween in November. We have a party tomorrow, and my work one will be rescheduled whenever we can. And THEN, we can get back to normal…. right?