Twenty Inches and Twenty Eleven

Little Q train that could

2010 ended in a world of white. A snowstorm of gargantuan proportions nearly shut down New York City during the last week of December, and it wasn't pretty.

I was on my way to the Lincoln Center area on December 26th when the snow started picking up speed and strength. I was probably on one of the last Q trains to make it into Manhattan, which I photographed as it pulled into Kings Highway station. Thankfully, I arrived safely at my destination after a quick detour on the limited edition holiday nostalgia train running on the M line (such a treat. Photos below).

Bad parking job.

The next day I made a brave but foolish attempt to get home to Sheepshead Bay. After completing roughly three-quarters of the journey, I waited an hour in ice cold winds at the corner of Flatbush & Nostrand Avenue for a B44 bus that never came. Accepting defeat, I begrudgingly abandoned the mission and schlepped back to the city, where I stayed for two more days. Manhattan certainly isn't the worst place to be snowed in-- especially during a well deserved week off from work-- but I was completely blindsided by the storm, as was most of the city.

Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were hit the worst. My neighborhood was isolated and unplowed for days. B and Q trains were suspended for most of the week. Buses were either frozen in their tracks (literally) or completely missing in action. Local blog Sheepshead Bites provided excellent coverage of the Ravaging of South Brooklyn-- excuse me, the Blizzard of 2010.

Never before has snow been so destructive, so crippling, so thoroughly debilitating as it was last month (at least in the eyes of this twentysomething). How eagerly my friends and I used to await the first snowfall of winter, a joyous occasion that almost always took place in January. But our early bird blizzard has struck lasting fear into the hearts of New Yorkers. Forecasts calling for "flurries" or a "wintry mix" now cause widespread feelings of panic and pandemonium. Quick, run to the store and stock up on milk and toilet paper before it's too late!

Living history

All aboard.

All weather-related jokes aside, 2010 may have ended on a bit of a rough note, but ultimately made for another pretty good year of post-grad wandering. Ten books, five concerts, one west coast vacation and countless happy hours later, I'm about to embark upon a brand new chapter. Wish me luck as I begin a career in publishing and move one step closer to figuring out what the real world is all about.