power on, fridge empty (but the IMPORTANT part: the christmas tree lights up again)

At least I've got my priorities in line. We may have nothing but margarita mixer and melted butter in the fridge, but the Christmas tree is lit again, and - really - what better holiday spirit than to go hungry by the light of the tree? Christmas has its electricity back. All is well (and that lovely picture is, yes, MY tree)

So, we'll all readily acknowledge that this was no hurricane, no tsunami, no earthquake, just a one-night windstorm, but driving to work on Friday morning (after waking to the alarm on my barely-charged cell phone and picking out my clothes with a keychain flashlight) and seeing power lines laying across our main roads, seeing trees through the roofs of homes, having to detour half a dozen times to drive my seven miles to work (while everyone else FAILED to treat the dark traffic lights as four-way stops...what's the FIRST thing they teach you when you're learning to drive??? TREAT THEM AS A FOUR-WAY STOP. Apparently around here the fact that I stop at the intersection is actually my way of encouraging everyone else to barrel right on through one after another. who knew.) it felt like the twilight zone.

Thankfully K and I had the good sense not to asphyxiate ourselves (but hundreds of other people trying to barbeque indoors couldn't say the same, as we now have the proud distinction of being home to the country's largest carbon monoxide poisoning "epidemic" in history), but falling into a nice carbon monoxide-induced nap didn't sound so bad as I was huddled on the couch watching the indoor temperature approach 40-degrees...we could see our breath indoors. All of the blankets and jackets and pretzel-like "cuddling" maneuvers couldn't really keep out that kind of cold. No hot water, no heat, no light, no magical electrical fireplace...

It's a cute novelty at first, honestly. Swapping stories at work about the downed trees that I dodged and how many houses in my neighborhood would need new roofs, and how cold and dark it was, and who looked the best for having gotten dressed in the dark.

For about 4 hours. Then all novelty is gone. Then I'm trying to figure out how to barbeque eggs and how to bury last night's Indian food in the flower beds to keep them cold (because....it would have been too easy to go buy a cooler and some ice and just pretend we were, oh, camping. too easy). I can parade around with mascara smudges all over my face for a day or so because the bathroom is pitch black, then I have to figure out how to warm up enough water to wash my face without squealing from the cold water.

K was fantastic enough to warm up the toilet seat for me when I had to pee (FREEZING toilet seat...FREEZING.). Conversation would go something like this:

"I have to pee."
"Ok, hold on, I'll warm it up."

So he'd run off and sit on the seat for a few minutes, then

"It's ready - hurry and sit, hurry and sit!"

so then I'd swoop in and we had this great relay-style seat handoff maneuver that meant I could plant my buns on pre-warmed seat.

At any rate - power came back on after 3.5 days and about as many trips to the movie theatre (we had to toss EVERYTHING out of the fridge...yes, my collection of Betty Crocker frostings that I have on hand for those times that I really - REALLY - just need a few big spoonfuls of straight frosting (german chocolate, cream cheese, rainbow chip, lemon...whatever the mood calls for) were all tossed. They could probably survive a nuclear apocolypse since I'm pretty sure they're nothing but butter and creatively named preservatives, but who wants to find out they're wrong and admit that they're sick because they ate too much frosting that had gone bad....)...