sometimes i am reminded that i live on a very small island very near the ocean.

last wednesday it rained several inches in very few hours. the entire city stopped. well, ok, not the entire city, but certainly a very important bit: the subways. during morning rush hour, there were absolutely no subways running anywhere on the island because of flooding. tens of thousands of us were stuck trying to get to work with no forms of transportation.

apparently, the pumps in the subways take care of thirteen million gallons of water on a dry day. this is the only statistic that helps me understand how a little bit of rain can bring a city to its knees.

when i finally made it on to a bus that was crossing one of the bridges (so so so slowly), someone said the obligatory: "only in new york." is this some kind of national one-up game where we have to prove that our city is more miserable than yours? are we proud of the fact that our city can be defeated by some rain? "sure, we have the best city in the world, but we're waaay more miserable than you."

on saturday night, we went to a friend's birthday party. they're from chile and most of their friends turned out to be international too. mike arrived at the party before i did (bike versus subway) and when i got there, he greeted me with "this is your kind of party. everyone here is speaking spanish or french."

yesterday, mike and i went out to governor's island, a small island south of manhattan and a short ferry ride away. they were having a civil war re-enactment, so we saw a soldier's camp, a weapons demonstration, and a fort where several union soldiers were keeping confederate prisoners of war. one of the prisoners gave a tourist a "letter for his sweetheart" but when the union soldier stopped her at the gate, he discovered a map of the fort including how many guns in each yard, etc. he let the lady go and returned the map to the prisoners with one comment: "you spelled 'yard' wrong."

today is our two-year anniversary. and we're still happy! go figure. :-)