I went to work on the isle of Manhattan today and this is how it went:

Waited in line for a ferry to the city at 7:45am to beat the crowds. Total commute: 1.5 hours. Not bad relative to others' adventures. Heard that venturing home would be far worse. Took my coworker 4 hours to go home yesterday (2 hours of that was waiting in line for a bus.)

Left work early at 4pm to walk across Manhattan from 7th ave to the East River, which took 30 minutes. Waited in a ferry line that snaked around into oblivion, where we all prayed we'd get one of last boats before they stopped running at 6pm.

Ten cold fingers and one shivering hour later I boarded this packed boat back to my borough of Brooklyn. Total commute: 2 hours.

Others waited on the gangplank to go back to Manhattan, but not me. I was HOME.

Upon arriving home I did the following:

Called my dad who had heart surgery last week, but is doing well. He will get to go home tomorrow fingers crossed.
Called my mom who has been holding the entire family together back in CT dealing with lost power from the storm, tending to aging parents, working, and driving back and forth to the hospital and worrying. But trying to pretend like she's not worrying.
Felt guilty because I can't go home to see my dad because I have a cold - did I mention that? - because he's very vulnerable right now, and because trains aren't running to CT yet.
Drank an entire bottle of wine.
Reminded myself that people are much worse off than me right this very minute because of the hurricane.

If you'd like to make donation to the people who are truly suffering in New York I recommend doing it here. I did. It's the very least I can do.