Everyday Uses of Electricity

When you are a kid, power outages are exciting. When you're an adult, you learn very quickly just how much we rely on electricity. This morning, when I woke up to no power in our apartment (apparently a fuse blew somewhere and affected some but not all of the apartment complex - Damien and Erin are just across the parking lot, and they had no problems.) It turns out that lights and electricity are necessary or preferable for:

• Using the bathroom.
  
  
• Putting on socks (harder to do in the dark than you might think - shoes are easier).
  
  
• Finding hair clips on a messy dresser top.
  
  
• Taking a shower.
  
  
• Making breakfast (my standard options include pancakes on my electric stove, or a bagel toasted in my electric toaster - this morning I had to settle for cereal with milk that had been in a refrigerator that had been nonfunctioning for at least three hours, and likely more).
  
  
• Occupying oneself while eating said breakfast (I couldn't watch TV because the TV wasn't working, or read my Time magazine because it was too dark in the apartment except right by the window where there was no table, or check my email because our wireless internet connection requires electricity).
  
  
• Using the blow-drier.
  
  
• Putting hair up wet (I had to try about seven times because my hair is dark and the apartment is dark and I couldn't even see if my hair was cooperating).
  
  
• Putting on makeup (many girls always put their makeup on in the car - this was my first time ever).

Basically every piece of my morning routine was made more difficult by the lack of electricity. But the plus side of all of this was that I got out the door about an hour earlier than usual, for a few reasons. First, I got up earlier because, since I didn't know what time it was when I first got up, and didn't have a clock to keep rolling over and looking at, I had a hard time drifting back to sleep. Second, I ate breakfast faster because cereal takes almost no time to prepare, and the only thing I could do while eating it was wander outside and see if I could see any lights on in other apartments in the building. Third, I got ready faster because there was nothing I could do with my hair except put it up wet - I'm not thrilled with the results, but I had no choice. And last of all, there was no internet to distract me - if I wanted to check my email or the weather or the news or write a blog about having no electricity, I had to get out the door and down to the community college.

Thankfully a truck from the energy company was pulling up as I left, so I think the power will be back on when I go home this afternoon.