Byrons Survive Sandy

Well, spread out in three locations across the country, the Byrons made it through Sandy generally in one piece.  Allison, safe in the confines of the midwest, went about her daily routine and accidentally kept calling it "Sally" (she was clearly very worried for our safety).

In D.C., I discovered that I am on the same electrical grid as the White House and we rarely lose power.  As I checked the PEPCO online map of number of customers without service, the center of D.C. remained green, noting only 1-50 customers ever lost power.  Score one for Logan Circle! 

My parents, closer to Sandy's direct path in Philadelphia, did not fare as well and lost power for several days.  While Mom sought refuge to shower at a friend's place, Dad made lemonade out of lemons and found an opportunity to cook up a storm (pun very much intended) at the local firehouse where first responders were standing by.  Read all about it!

But we did not all make it through unscathed.  On Wednesday AM, I was devastated to learn  that the storm uprooted my first Christmas tree.  Now, any of you who actually know me know how crazy I am for Christmas.  And I would have been OVERWHELMED to know my first Christmas tree still existed.  Alas, I was 9 months old when it was planted and had been unaware of its existence until I learned of its demise!  Easy come, easy go, I suppose.  Had I known, I probably would have insisted on decorating it each year, only to leave my parents with the task of undecorating it in January.  But here it is (or at least its root system), 28 years in the making. 

In D.C., we also made lemonade.  And that lemonade had vodka in it.  Monday was my roommate's birthday, so we could think of no better way to ride out the storm than to have a Birthday/Hurricane party.  We stocked up on supplies (champagne and funfetti cake) and hunkered down with chick flicks and board games.  At one point early in the evening - while emulating the "jazz walk" as acted by Heath Ledger in the teen movie classic "Ten Things I Hate About You" (based on the Taming of the Shrew! - we're cultured!) - I fell.  And when I do something, I do it 100%.  Wearing socks and long fleece pants, I slipped on the wood floors and my feet flew up in the air, and I landed squarely on my butt (thankful for lots of padding!).  As my feet made their exit from beneath me, my left foot jammed squarely into the bottom of our couch.  Ouch.  The rest of the night I felt like a wuss and complained how much it hurt, sulked, and went to bed early while both the festivities and storm were still raging. 

When I woke up it looked like this:

One xray later, it was determined I broke my toe in the silliest way a toe has ever been broken.  I am now the owner of a sexy walking shoe for the next 2-4 weeks and have been forbidden from running the Philly half in two weeks.  It's my first broken bone ever, though, so I think I'm still coming out ahead.

Overall, the Byrons came out the other side of Sandy mostly intact, sans one Christmas tree.