I don't really have much of a Blackout 2003 to tell like other people do. When the power went out, I was napping. I woke up an hour or two later sweating to death and was all, "the power's out? That sucks." As the sun went down, it was irritating to live across the street from a Co-Op Cityish development that has their own generator. Totally business as usual up in Rochdale as they watched TV and had lights blazing while my side of the street looked like underground or something. We lit candles, threw open all the windows, made dinner on the gas stove, and traded back and forth my mom's Walkman. It was a good night to be old school.
Around 3:30 am, I started up out of bed when I heard what sounded like firecrackers. I'm like "what the fuck? Firecrackers this time of night? Fucking kids." I turn into a crotchety old woman when my sleep is interrupted. I look out the window and see/hear some sort of official people battering down the back door of the house diagonally behind mine. Then, I think, "oh shit...what fuckups! Getting raided in a blackout!" I also think I'm in an episode of Cops when I get woken up in the middle of the night. South Jamaica representing. Anyhoo, then I looked up and saw the smoke. It turns out the house was on fire. No one was hurt and they put it out pretty quickly. A woman had fallen asleep and the candle had fallen over onto the mattress. It was contained in one room, but the firefighters were having a field day breaking windows and tossing the frames in the backyard. Talk about overkill.
Today was just like any old day minus the fan/AC. The buses and traffic were running normally, people were hanging around as they do. The difference was my mom telling stories of braving the mob at the supermarket and a guy down the street selling big bags of ice out of his trunk. I became so bored at one point I started folding up the clothes I washed the other day, but for a change my room was cool. Then around 5:15pm, the lamp came on and we heard cheering next door. The first thing I did was watch some TV and turn on the ceiling fan before pulling out The Colour And The Shape to rock out before the call of the computer became too strong and I had to jump on the net. It's a disease.
Is it wrong for me to be all: "well, the buses are running -- and free. I could go out if I want to. There's no real reason to stay home." Kids nowadays...never satisfied.
Posted by Candicissima at August 15, 2003 08:11 PM