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star-sailor (profile) wrote,
on 9-11-2008 at 2:53am
Music: Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) - The Arcade Fire
Subject: If I'm A Liar, That Makes The Two Of Us (Power Outages, Shadow Stars, and Puppy Dogs)
Climatic day, to say the least.
So I'll say only a little.



Last night, my mom, Trudy (our relative), and myself were hanging out in the living room around ten o'clock. I wanted to watch Stuff Happens before beddy bye. It was a fun episode about kitchens. I was happy watching it until there was a loud, immense, massive thump outside, and the power in my entire home was cut out.

Apparently, a huge, quite healthy tree branch decided to commit suicide, and it's carcass conveniently landed on the nearby power line. Not only did it snap some of the cable free from the connector-thingy on my house, but it literally began to rip the electricity metre away from the house; literally tugged on it, only holding on by the frame of the house and some dedicated screws from 50 years ago.


For those of you living in nice, comfortable, air-conditioned domiciles, let me set the scene: torrential rain all day, and North Texas weather. That means humid, muggy, and no wind at all. The house quickly turned into the oven, and though the temperature outside was pleasant-ish after the rains, it was by no means comfortable. Of course, we called the power company immediately. I went out into the street, near the curb, with a chair, some milk, and some Cheez-Its, and read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami in the streetlamp light.

A truck showed up with two chatty repairmen. They did some repairs, but apparently the electrical lines snapped at them with dangerous sparks. An electrician needed to check the wires before they could do anything else, for risk of them shocking themselves to death. We were stuck without power.


I make it sound more dramatic than it actually was, but considering I was intending on having my Wednesday pretty chill, with thorough studying and possible Voilà! writing, this wasn't exactly following suit. I slept in my oven of a humid room. I woke up to the sound of my screen door and barks. Need I remind you, my dog died two months ago. Curious?

Trudy has been staying with us for the past week or so, off and on, as she's moving out of her/her dad's house. They always fight, so this is somewhat typical, honestly. Anyway,Trudy's friend/neighbour had a family of dogs: a mother and three puppies, all girls. Last night, before dark, one of the puppies died; apparently, the backyard had been sprayed with pesticide, and the dog was poisoned. Obviously, Trudy didn't want the other puppies to die. I'm not sure what happened to the mother, but the puppies were brought to our house.

They were adorable little black fuzz-balls, one mellowed out, the other full of energy; I lament not taking pictures. The owner wasn't contacting Trudy about retaking the puppies, so we were basically stuck with them; their mother was apparently already in the pound, and was preparing to shift over to the humane society.


The electrician came by mid-day, and fixed the electrical metre back to the side of the house. It was ready for a reconnection... which never came. We called our electrical company, naturally, and they told us a team would be here around 4. The puppies were picked up by animal control around then, and will hopefully find a lovely home via the humane society. I hope.

I was at work by now - I'm working once again - same job as last year, working at Richard Wilson Elementary in the After-school program. Many of the kids I worked with last year remain in the program; although they're just "students," to me, I've really bonded with some of them, and in a way, do consider them friends, albeit the obvious age difference, but who cares, eh? I'm happy to see my friends again, and as awesome as that was, they were happy to see me too! Talk about smiles!

Wednesday marked the third day of after-school, so we had already been in the swing of things for a couple days. One activity we had was baby-food eating. Basically, we line the kids up, have them close their eyes, and feed them gross baby food in front of everyone; the kids have to try to guess what they ate, and they get a prize if they guess right. Well, apparently the teachers (myself included) had to do it to. We got, "the worst one." Chicken with rice. Need I remind you, I'm still vegetarian. I won't count that as "eating meat," cause I didn't even have a whole spoonful, but I would lament what I did have later.

By the end of after-school, I was feeling oddly nauseas. By the time I got home, I was certainly not feeling good at all. I've been told that when you've had a mostly plant-based diet, meat really messes with your stomach, and I have to concur. I felt like throwing up, but didn't want to be bothered with it, so - pun intended - I stomached through it. The power wasn't on though, which dampened my moods. To make matters worse, the humidity made the house unbearably hot. Three hours AFTER the due date for the electrical company's predicted arrival, and my condition had worsened. Again, more dramatic, but I certainly didn't feel well at all. I still felt incredibly sick to my stomach, the heat was just disgusting, and on top of it all, I garnered a massive headache. I was EXHAUSTED, but couldn't sleep - I felt too crappy, and it was way too hot to even begin getting comfortable. I felt terrible. I went to my grandma's.


Maybe it was the conversation, maybe it was the relaxing on the couch for an hour and a half, or maybe I just let whatever was wrong with my body run it's course, but a cup of tea and an unpleasant power-nap later, I felt better. I returned home to a house full of power. I intend to do some thorough sleeping action soon. I don't want to go to work tomorrow, or school the following day, but I just want to finish out my week and pretend this whole incident never happened. I really hope a similar occurrence doesn't come with Hurricane Ike, which is supposedly going to make it this far north, but I'm knocking on wood for that one. *knocks*


General update, and then I'm gone, because my typing skills seem to be fading with the ticking clock.

-Still vegetarian! Today was the first time I had any sort of meat at all (which is scary, since it noticeably made me feel like crap (my mom cooked some eggs in the same skillet as she cooked some meat in, which I don't think count, but had the same sort of effect on my stomach, though slightly more kind.)).
-Mon Français n'été pas eus amélioré à cause de cette tempête. Bah.
-As said, I'm reading Norwegian Wood again. It was the first really serious work I read several years back that I enjoyed and accepted, which definitely showed I was maturing. Reading it again, I can definitely respect it more, maturing both as a writer and reader over the past year and a half. It still comes sincerely recommended.
-Sadie Murray (the story, not the person) has gone on hold. I have becomed uninspired at the moment. I hoped to finish by the end of the year, but that doesn't seem to be a possibility anymore.
-I hope to do more writing for my story, Lumière. I have a feeling Leslie will like it.
-Leslie invited me to her aunt's art exhibition in Longview, Texas, very soon. Her aunt's work is FABULOUS! Holy hell... just look, you'll understand. Can you said roadtrip? :D
-Still moving. It's taking forever. Yawn. Nothing to say. How boring.



I've been on a very strange musical switcheroo over the past week. I progressed from a binge on Minus the Bear, to Throw Me The Statue, to M.I.A., to Vampire Weekend, to The Cool Kids, to Kanye and Ludacris (thanks Leslie and Battleground Earth), and now... well I'm not sure anymore. !!! maybe.
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