Given the utter devastation caused by 'superstorm Sandy,' I have heard quite a few comments about the fact that I am probably happy that I am not living on the east coast now since that is where I was born and raised and had lived until 4 years ago. Most are surprised by my response which is that I absolutely am not happy, not happy at all, in fact. Do people really believe that a single storm of the century could keep me from pining away about home? Impossible. It will take a lot more than massive power outages, downed trees and never before seen flooding to keep me from longing to return to the east coast. I was devastated when I had to leave as it is was all I had known and, more importantly, it was the only place I had ever wanted to live. You know how people fantasize about moving to exotic locales or perhaps moving across the country for a change of scenery and lifestyle? I was not one of them. I was fine with moving throughout the tri-state area, but the thought of any further than that threw me into a full-on panic attack...and now I am here, thirteen hundred miles from the coast and I am still trying to find my sea legs. Quite frankly, I don't think I will ever truly acclimate for a lot of reasons none the least of which is my inability to stop comparing everything here to what we had there.
It is going to take a long time for the area to return to its pre-Sandy self. Since I still listen almost exclusively to NY radio stations, I have been able to stay abreast of all the news reports and the continued rescue and clean up efforts and I have heard what the estimates are before everything will return to normal. But, it will. Despite it all, I still wish I could be back there pitching in rather than living here and watching it all unfold from a distance. Once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker!
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