Our Terrifying Reality

In the wake of the Frankenstorm, with no school and unable to go outside because of all the rain and wind, what else is a girl to do but hunker down and watch TV and movies? This is something I really excel at so I can handle it. I was a little scared I would get stir crazy and lonely during this "Hurrication" and that did happen, but I tried to keep as busy as possible. During the storm, I online-shopped, Skyped with family, cleaned, had a one-woman dance party, and watched A LOT of TV. A lot.

On a very serious note, although I was happy that I didn't have to work, the last few days were stressful and scary. The stuff that was predicted about this storm was accurate and there is a lot of damage around NYC, Long Island, and NJ. Some of it straight out of Day After Tomorrow. I feel very lucky to have only suffered boredom during this horrific storm becuse so many others lost their homes and their lives. It's so unbelievably sad, that I am almost just too shocked right now to cry. Almost. You guys know me so you know I cried. Seeing the wreckage on TV for so many hours for the last few days is just devastating and heartbreaking. I have been to so many of the places hit the hardest and to see the wreckage is horrifying. No one really thought that NYC would really get hit this hard either, and once again, I just feel so lucky that because of my uptown location in the city, I remained safe.

With all these free days cooped up, I did though get a lot accomplished (it's all relative, right?) with the help of my free 6-month subscription to Showtime. Since I normally can't afford premium cable, having Showtime is a very nice surprise. And the timing couldn't have been better with having to hunker down. My cable company gave it to me as a "Customer Appreciation" award. I for one, wasn't going to let this subscription go to waste, especially not in the first few days. I had heard Showtime has some amazing series and the first one I wanted to tackle was Homeland. It has gotten amazing reviews from the professionals and from the Facebook status' of all my friends, so naturally I had to take a look for myself as I am quite the TV aficionado.

After a day-and-a-half of solid TV watching with some breaks here and there, I watched all of Season 1 and five episodes of Season 2 so I am now officially caught up and can watch live Sunday. This show is seriously addicting. I didn't want to stop after each episode and now that I am up to speed, its going to be difficult to wait an entire week to see the new episodes, but I am happy to do it.

If you have ever seen the 1999 movie Arlington Road with Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges, this is strangely reminiscent. It is straight up fucking scary. That's because terrorism is terrifying. The fact that Arlington Road was filmed before 9/11 makes it even scarier. In a post 9/11 era, we live in a constant fear of "what's next?" and Homeland doesn't do much to ease these fears and decrease the paranoia. However, this is real life and the the reality of the situation is that people want to take America down. We should only be grateful that we have some of the best and brightest trying to fight the war on terrorism.

The state of our country and our safety has really been in the forefront of my mind lately the last few days with my TV viewing choices and with Hurricane Sandy and all its effects. And its scary shit. I know I can't sit around and worry, but this is the reality. The worry-free times of ten years ago regarding our national safety from terrorists and climate change are gone. This isn't just because I am older and am more aware of what's going on, its just the world we live in today. I am just hoping that we keep learning from the devastation of the past so it doesn't repeat itself.