Russ and I were planning a trip to New York City for our friends’ wedding the week before last. A big, scary city is big and scary enough without a big, scary hurricaine coming too. Right after New York, we were heading to Central Veterinary Conference in Kansas City.
Thursday…
Russ called me at work. “We can’t go! Irene is coming!” he said.
“I will see you when I get home from the trip!” I said. I can be a jerk like that.
When I got home from work that night, we agreed that we could not miss Debbie and Chuck’s wedding. We had been looking forward to this NYC/KC trip for months. We called the bride and groom and told them we would be there. I completely wore out my Central Veterinary Conference (CVC) itinerary choosing and rechoosing classes for CVC.
- At one point, I had five classes planned for one hour.
One of the two aspects of CVC I was most excited about was spending time with my vet tech friend, Erika. We were going to happy hour at the Melting Pot on Sunday night. Also, Erika had checked with the CVC bosses, and they would let us go to tech or vet sessions together on Monday. Yay.
The other aspect of CVC I was most excited about was meeting three of the editors of dvm360 – Jessica (dvm360), Kristi (Veterinary Economics) and Kerry (Firstline), also on Sunday evening. We were going to talk about the new dvm360 iPad app. I really just wanted to be where they were for an hour, and if we talked about the iPad app (which is GREAT, btw), that was fine with me.
If you knew how much I love Erika (and the Melting Pot) I could better explain how equally awesome meeting the dvm360 editors was going to be. I had been looking forward to meeting these women someday since I first started corresponding with them online and writing articles for dvm360 over a year ago. These women are smart, successful leaders in the veterinary writing profession, and I was finally going to meet them in person!
Friday…
We drove to KC. We had to take the pretty route because of all the recent flooding.
- Iowa Wind Farm on the drive to KC
Russ and I sat in the KC airport waiting for our flight to New York. To our left were flashing “Welcome to KC CVC Veterinary Teams!” signs. To our right were televisions showing the worst of Hurricaine Irene and predicting doom for NYC and other eastern US cities. I looked at Russ. “We could just stay…” I said. “No, you were right,” he said, “and…our plane is boarding!” We flew off to meet our friends and Irene.
Saturday…
Both airports, the entire NYC subway, most NYC cabs and most businesses announced they would be closed on Sunday. Mandatory evacuation was scheduled by noon on Sunday for low-lying areas of NYC. We were in Brooklyn, so we were (probably) in a safe part of town.
Our Sunday morning flight out of town was rescheduled for Monday night (Thank you Delta!) We called parents and (sadly) e-mailed editors and Erika-Friend. We secured our hotel room for another night. They even charged us the much lower than normal wedding rate they had charged us for the first two nights after a (nice) request from Russ. (Thank you Sheraton Hotel in Brooklyn!) We called our KC hotel and told them we would be a day and several hours late, and they said “Don’t worry about it. Stay safe.” (Thank you Downtown Kansas City Marriott!)
We went to a convenience store to buy storm snacks. I took a picture of The Statue of Liberty on the wall of the store.
- My First View of the Statue of Liberty
Fellow line dwellers giggled. “It’s our first time here.” I said. “I really wanted to see it.” I do not often generalize, but I will say that even in emergency preparation mode, with a hurricaine coming, which is as unknown to a New Yorker as it is to an Omahan, New Yorkers are kind.
We went to the wedding at Debbie and Chuck’s church. Everything about the wedding was beautiful.
- Sunday’s church service is cancelled. Saturday’s wedding is not!
Sunday…
I woke up at 4:00 am to what sounded like a really bad Nebraska thunderstorm. It came and went pretty quickly.
Russ and I walked around Brooklyn. “NYC is not crowded. It’s empty!” I said. “Ha!” Russ said. We spent time with Chuck and Debbie’s families and their other friends, which we would not have otherwise been able to do. Twice we had paused, and twice we had decided to move ahead. When all is said and done, I am so grateful we were able to be with Chuck and Debbie for their wedding. It will always be one of my very best memories.
- Chuck, Debbie, me, Russ
Monday…
Russ and I walked around some more. Chuck and Debbie flew off to their honeymoon. We flew to KC. We checked into our hotel super late at night and fell right asleep.
Tuesday…
I went to a series of four morning cat lectures by Andrew Specht, DVM, DACVIM. They were so good. We left before they could start taking down the CVC banners and balloons.
- Balloons at CVC
We drove the three hours to Omaha and picked the girls up from Grandma and Papa’s. They had all had a good time. They loved the NYC keychains and snowglobes we brought, though they had actually asked for keychain snowglobes. (“Do those exist?” I had asked. “I don’t know,” they had said.)
I opened my email Tuesday right before we crashed for the night and saw this note from Jessica from Tuesday morning…”Are you still in KC? Kerry and I are back at work but Kristi is still there and might be able to meet you!”
I cried.
I still have not unpacked everything. I hate that figure of speech, but I suppose it fits.
*****
I will post wedding pictures and more NYC pictures tomorrow.
Debbie and Chuck, we love you. We would fly into a hurricaine for you all over again. Thank you for including us in your beautiful wedding day.
Karen and Phill, thank you for keeping our babies safe. We would have been complete wrecks if they had been in New York city with us.
Jeff and Lu, thank you for keeping our fur babies safe.
Erika-Friend, what are you doing this time next year?
Awesome Editors, I still am looking forward to meeting you. I hear there is no more weather drama scheduled ever, are you busy? :)
