Friday, August 04, 2006

losing power

After many years of suffering, I have finally unearthed the source of my insomnia... Electricity.

It was 8:59PM last night, when it happened. After all the ads during Project Runway, and at the urging of several coworkers, I finally was giving the train wreck of a reality show Work Out a chance, and it was just starting to suck me in, when there was a jolting POP, and then darkness. A hush fell over the community. There was total silence for about two minutes, until I heard a woman's voice from outside yell, hell no... heeeeell no, and then there was a murmur as all the locals began to gather in the streets. Hell no, was all I could hear.

It's amazing how blackouts bring people together. Blackouts, ambulances, and firetrucks. As if they are mice who smell cheese outside their mouse holes... They gather. It feels a bit like a science experiment to me. Like some being with power, be it God, aliens, Tom Cruise, or an Exec at PSE&G who has a kid in need of a science project. I can see the title drawn on posterboard now... Watch as the otherwise anti-social and isolating loners suddenly become social creatures in times of potential crisis.

Then suddenly it hit me. It was 9:00. Heeeell no, I burst out. Not only was my TV not working, but I realized that the DVR would not be recording the results show for So You Think You Can Dance. The horror. 10 minutes passed as I sat on the couch motionless, staring at the blank screen. 10 more passed. I went from visualizing the show to imagining those unfortunate people in Queens who had to live for a week or so without power. It's hard to image, I had only been without television and internet for about 20 minutes, and I already felt totally lost. I'm so pathetic.

I was also sleep deprived after a nightmare of a Tuesday night, when I got out of bed at 2 or so and started taking long exposure photos of light sources, which is evidently what I do when I have bad nights these days. 84 of them to be exact. All photos of lights. I was convinced that they were the most amazing thing EVER, and that I was going to put them together and create an experimental film that would give the illusion of life and motion from the still photos. Genius. Until I looked at them the next day and they just looked like 84 fuzzy blobs. Needless to say, my midnight madness threw off my non-existent sleep schedule, so last night I was a zombie anyway.

It was 9:30 or so when I took a sleeping pill, walked Audrey, and within 20 minutes, I was out like a light. A fuzzy blob of a light. And for the first time in probably 5 years, I fell asleep before 1AM... and I have to say, it feels pretty great.

Now, if only I could sue the electric company for all those sleepless nights I spent watching stupid movies and blogging, I'd be a billionaire, and I'd really be feeling great.
posted by Danielle @ 12:55 PM |

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