Last week there was a blackout all over San Diego. At first, I was annoyed because I couldn't work. But then, gradually, I became glad, because I couldn't work. I took the kids to the pool and the pool manager told me he heard the power wasn't going to come back on until sometime the next day. I felt a little giddy. This was as close to camping as I would ever want to get. I'm the type of person who, born in a different era, would be dead by now. I would have been naturally selected out and consumed by tigers because of my poor eyesight. If required to hunt rabbits for survival as a result of the power outage, I wouldn't make it (should I hunt with a spatula or a collander?).
But I survived the power outage. I cooked -- on my gas grill (no, can't make fire with twigs either). I quenched my thirst with beer (which was made of hops and barley that someone planted). And the most startling thing happened that night. I discovered...moonlight. I'd heard that word before -- and I've certainly seen the moon -- but I didn't get it until I saw it in the absence of other light that the moon actually provides light. And that night, a lot of it. So much of it that it actually kept awake up as I was lying on the floor in an attempt to keep cool (weakness #4: cannot withstand temperature fluctuations of +/- 3 degrees). [Full disclosure: I am the person who once walked in a field behind my childhood home and ran as if doing a jig because grasshoppers were touching me. Observing me, a friend of my brother's asked, "Has your sister ever been outdoors?"]
But, moonlight! I've seen it. It only took me 40 years to experience it. Now I get it. Moonlight.
See, people are reading you, Sandi, if only you'd update more! Here's me talking. It took me a almost 3 years between posts, and I just barely managed not to get disconnected by blogger, which would have been a major loss for the blogosphere. WIRED headline: "Sandi and Dragana's blogs put the mic on microcosm!" Well, some women apparently are better (yes it's all a big competition), look what I've found via Jen Tankersley:
ReplyDeletewww.adesignsovast.com
I instantly wanted to shut her down because it's SO the blog I wanted and never had, and who's to blame for that... and today she even has to quote Charles Simic, who's from Belgrade! My town! I should own him! I should whine more!
Ok, I'm ODing on caffeine right now. But speaking of wine, we're throwing our pre-xmas party tonight, consistently voted one of the premier Christmas parties in SW Highland Park, and very much wish you guys could join us. Keep up the writing! And don't rub in the 40th b-day business. No one who doesn't look at your SSN believes it, and besides it all gets better, promise.