I Have No Electricity

Last week I texted my friend Dals to see what she was doing for the evening. "Chillin' at home, smokin' hookah. My power went out," she responded. I texted back, "Ahaha you loser," and then I thought about just how much it sucked being her.

On Monday afternoon, I arrived to LA from Las Vegas and was greeted by a sweltering apartment. I don't have A/C. Usually it's not cold inside my place, but fans are always on so it's somewhat pleasant. I saw that the fans were off, but thought that my roomate must have turned them off before she went to go visit her parents. No biggie.

Then I opened my refrigerator to grab some water and I noticed that my refrigerator light was off. Then I looked at my microwave, and saw that the time wasn't showing. I called the roomie to tell her that the power was out. "You paid the bill, right?" Of course I did!

I called LA DWP and they let me know that my account was up to date, but told me my block was having a power outage. When I asked when the electricity would be back on, the represenative said, "Ma'am, there are people that have been without any electricity since Thursday. They are priority and I can't tell you when your power will be back."

I wish I could tell you that not having any electricity isn't a big deal, but it fucking sucks, especially when peeps across the street have it and you don't. I couldn't do ANYTHING. I coudn't turn on the fans to cool myself down from the heat. I couldn't go on the internet to catch up on my blogs, or watch TV to kill the time. And it can get so dark at night! Finally, I did what any adult would do. I called my mom and asked her to pick me up.

My power didn't go back on until yesterday afternoon, and dude, was I stoked on life. Things are back to normal and I'm trying to do what I can to conserve. Having no electricity is awful. Outages that are only a couple of hours aren't too bad, but ones that last for days are the hugest inconvenience. So do what you can to flex your power and let's help Los Angeles out.

Photo by My name is Saffanna via Flickr