I used to think a long term power outage would be exciting... Well, this week I learned that I was wrong... They are not exciting or romantic... Especially in July... Or when you have a grandmother that lives off of machines living with you... Or when you have guests... But super especially when you have all three of those happening at once... 

The past two days have been completely miserable... There was a really bad storm on Friday night with hurricane force winds and lots of cloud to ground lightning... It knocked out power for all of Northern Virginia, DC, and a lot of Maryland... With temperatures reaching up to 100 degrees yesterday and today, everyone was totally miserable... 

On Saturday, we camped out at the library that I work at to charge up our phones and laptops (not that we could use our phones because the cell towers were down too)... My library was one of the only ones in the county that had power and internet so it was totally packed... People were sitting on the floor next to outlets charging their phones, ipods, and laptops... Northern Virginia people are not very well equipped to handle disasters like this... ;)

Another horrible thing is that payday was Thursday so my mom went grocery shopping on Friday... So we had a whole fridge and freezer full of food... On Saturday evening, we cooked up all of the chicken and hamburger patties we bought... It was a good thing we had company over... 

Saturday night was the worst... Everyone slept downstairs... Sorta... I don't know how much sleep everyone actually got... It was so hot... One of my good friends and her husband slept in their car because it was 90 degrees in their attic apartment... 

At about 4 in the morning, my disabled grandma who lives with us went into distress... She has to be on a breathing machine at night and periodically during the day otherwise carbon dioxide builds up in her bloodstream... Due to the power outage, she hadn't been on it for more than 24 hours... So my mom had to call 911 for an ambulance to come get her... We all envied her... She got to go into air conditioning... She will be fine now that she can be on her machine and have doctors monitor her blood gases... But it was horrible to be woken up at 4 in the morning by a 911 call... 

Our first plan for today was the pool... But would ya know it, it runs on electricity!!! So we went to Fredricksburg instead... I would have had a really good time if I hadn't had to drive... That put me in a sour mood... So I just didn't talk very much and avoided people... Charming Charlie and frozen yogurt helped... :) 

When we got home, the power was back!!! I cannot describe to you how amazing it was to walk into an air conditioned house... I didn't care so much about not having internet or having to shower by candle light... But the a/c... That is an absolute necessity of life... 

Now we are sitting at home hanging out with our friends and trying to decide what movie we want to watch... This might take a while... ;)

Lesson of the weekend... Power outages are not fun... And your attitude is a choice... I could have chosen to be more joyful today, but I didn't... I restrained myself from killing anyone, but I was miserable myself... So now, I am trying to be more happy... Hence all the happy pictures... ;)