Our Third Wheel

They say that rain on your wedding day means good luck. I can say that, after sitting through two typhoon-worthy graduation ceremonies (both my own) I feel lucky just to be alive, having not died of hypothermia on another milestone day. So it seems only fitting that on another very important day (well, weekend) of my life, I should be met with rain of historic proportions.

This weekend marks the first that Ben and I will spend together in our new apartment. And we will be greeted on this momentous occasion by none other than…Hurricane Irene.

Besides the obvious logistical wrench that Irene has thrown into our carefully-laid plans (shopping for a new couch in 90mph winds? Count me out!) there’s a psychological one as well. For weeks, we’ve been looking forward to finally settling into the apartment, maybe painting a wall or two, and exploring our new neighborhood. We talked about a nice dinner out (my favorite restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, is right up the street…aka, YES PLEASE) followed by a nice bottle of wine in one of the nearby parks. Maybe we’d even get a romantic moonlit stroll in there. You know, hold hands and stuff.

Home Depot, maybe Bed Bath and Beyond - I don't know if we'll have time!

The point is, it’s not gonna happen. As of noon today, public transit is no longer running, which puts a serious damper on shopping for houseware. Good luck getting a cab in a city that has too few of them even on bluebird days. And sloshing in gail-force winds through fifteen inches of rain is hardly a romantic stroll by anyone’s standards.

At first, I shook my fist at Irene for becoming the unwanted third wheel to our party of two. But then, as I considered the alternatives, it dawned on me: Netflix movies, cozy sweats (probably stolen from Ben’s side of the closet) and having a legit excuse not to see another human being for the entire weekend? Could this be real??

Turns out that we couldn’t have lucked out more. Crafty Irene created just the romantic weekend we were hoping for. 

Soaked...and happy