Blogging by Candlelight

Posting an entry that I wrote by hand and by candlelight during the East Village power outage thanks to Hurricane Sandy. I later found out that a transformer exploded. The point is, I went old school for this one: Pen. Paper. Candlelight.

This Monday at approximately 7:45 pm EST, I lost power. As a coincidence, my phone lost service at the same time. And of course, by "coincidence", I mean "typical benefit of being an AT&T customer".

As ANOTHER coincidence, I was in the middle of watching last Sunday's The Walking Dead. Why is this is coincidence? Because they don't have any power on that show. Except for Rick Grimes. He has lotz of power right ladyz jk he is NOT doing well morally. Seriously though, they have no electricity.

"Terminix? Hi. We sort of have a pest problem."

So, as I am writing this by candlelight, I can't help but think about what lies ahead in the coming days of New York City. Will it be a river city like Venice? Will it be overrun by animals from the NY Aquarium? Will it be a desolate wasteland where *holds flashlight up to face* Seamless doesn't deliver? If it's any of these, I need to find Will Smith's I Am Legend NYC house because the dude knew how to stockpile. Also, I'd like to find his Hitch home because THAT KITCHEN.

"Oh hay Eva. I kiiiiinnnnnd of told Chris he could come over. He's running out of Fig Newtons."

I've been through power outages before, but never in such a large urban area. This is probably why I've already used like 3 pop culture references to describe it. I don't know what I'm doing. And I don't know what to expect (except that Con Ed will still find a way to charge me for electricity during this outage).

You may be wondering what I've been doing to pass the time. If you aren't, then go fly a kite - preferably soon to catch some sweet hurricane winds. For those that are interested, I read for an hour. I made some tea (what up gas stove top). I re-enacted Mel Gibson's Braveheart speech, but replaced "freedom" with "electricity", practicing for my future call with Con Ed.

"They'll never take.. our ELECTRICITYYYY!"

After washing away the face paint, I sat down, lit my exotic spices unscented candle, and started writing this entry with a pen.

Being off the grid is actually nice. There are little to no distractions:

No baby bump pictures.

"3 weeks but you can't really tell, but aren't I skinny????"

No overreacting political posts.

"If Obama wins, I'm moving to another country because this one is ruined. These past 4 years have been unbearable. Ugh...gays."

"If you vote Romney, you love to hate women. Also, who will help give me money when I spend $10 for every $5 I make :( :( :( ????"

No Crossfit WOD descriptions

"1/2 mile run / 2 min burpees / 1/4 mile run while skipping and shoulder pressing cans of tomato soup / 2 min burpees immediately following consumption of a Mexi-Dip and Chips 

Remember: Only rest for 30 seconds between sets. This is for your heart rate. But more importantly, this allows you to post pictures of your workout for your friends!"

No more disruptive work emails

"Hi, drop what you're doing and deal with this have you dropped it yet hurry hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey drop it I need you this is important where are you ok thanks."

You can get a lot done without distractions. In fact, it only took me approximately 36 seconds to write all of this by hand (+ or - 20 minutes).


My hand hurts,
CJ