…from my lovely cousin Marissa’s apartment uptown. All’s well. We haven’t had power or cell service since Hurricane Sandy hit, but we’re all fine. Sorry if you left a voice or text message and I did not get back to you! We have a land line (but not voicemail) so if we are home, we will pick up.

It was fun watching my competent (longtime Burning Man attendee) husband smash dry ice with a mallet and dole it out to neighbors. The kids have been reading and playing with paper dolls by candlelight — it is so Little House on the Prairie all up in this joint I could just plotz. We have water, and other than a lot of expensive kosher meat, we’ve had no losses. Fellow New Yorkers on the LES, in Staten Island and elsewhere have not been as lucky. Bowery Boogie, the Lo-Down and EV Grieve are good sources of local info; people are really suffering in my neighborhood. There was massive flooding just a couple of blocks east of us, and a lot of old folks are stranded without water or food in high rises without working elevators. New Yorkers, please consider volunteering through The Educational Alliance; people outside the city and folks who can’t physically volunteer, please consider donating to Citymeals on Wheels, which delivers food to homebound (mostly elderly) New Yorkers. Con Ed is saying power will be back by tomorrow at 11pm, but persistent rumors say it’ll be back tonight. Fingers crossed.