Powerlessness

Hurricane Irene roared through the East Coast and left a lot of us without power. At my house, it went something like this:

6:00pm - 2 Hours without power: I knew we'd lose power, but it's a little scary in the dark with the rain pounding and the wind roaring outside.

8:00pm - 4 Hours without power: I really hope my cell phone battery doesn't die before it's supposed to wake me up in the morning.

6:00am - 14 Hours without power: My lead pastor calls to say that we're having worship this morning, even without power. I groan, not because I don't want to have worship, but because it is SO early and SO dark.

7:00am - 15 Hours without power: Charlie gives me guilt-inducing puppy-eyes when I consider leaving him home alone in the dark after the storm, so I take him with me to church. He stays in my office during worship.

12:00pm - 20 Hours without power: The line at Chipotle is INSANE, but the scene is the same at every restaurant in the area that has power.

5:00pm - 25 Hours without power: I don't want to open the freezer or refrigerator, since I don't want to let the cold out. So I'm faced with non-perishable food options. I begin subisisting on Cheez-Its and Pop Tarts... and I began to notice the similarities between Hurricane-diet and stoner-with-the-munchies diet. (Note: I've never smoked weed... I consider this common pop-culture knowledge.

8:00pm - 28 Hours without power: There is nothing to do except read by candlelight, and my eyes are getting tired. So I'm going to bed at 8:00pm for the first time in years.

8:30am - 40.5 Hours, still no power. I wake up alarmingly rested after 12 hours of solid sleep. I discover that neither my apartment nor my church has power, and I consider moving into Starbucks. But in the end I only stay there for a few hours.

1:00pm - 45 Hours, still no power. I take over a friend's apartment who still has power. I consider becoming a squatter in her place, but I'm pretty sure I don't match her decor.

7:00pm - 51 Hours, still no power. I sit on my balcony, enjoying the cooler autumn-ish air. Without power, the people in my apartment complex have been forced outside. Neighbors are talking to each other and walking their dogs together, and I actually had a conversation with someone from the building next door that I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. I start to think this is actually sort of nice, having community with my neighbors.

10:00pm - 54 Hours STILL no power. I use my laptop to watch a DVD just to avoid going to bed too early. I still go to sleep before midnight.

1:17am - I wake up in a complete state of disorientation when there is suddenly noise and light in my apartment. All at once the lights turn on, the television jolts to life, and the air conditioning begins to whir. Charlie looks at me like, "I KNEW you'd been holding out on me! You totally could have used your opposable thumbs to flip the magic switches and turn the lights on days ago, you've just been doing this to punish me!" I frown at him, turn everything off, and go back to sleep. Because, when you're sleeping, power doesn't matter much.