Welcome To Electricity And Lack Thereof...

Another week and another blog. I watched Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog tonight. If you haven't seen it, you should. Love Neil Patrick Harris, he's amazing in it. It's also Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. I think I've hit a new HP overload. However, I have realized that I tend to forget that to watch all of these things I need electricity.

Well guess what, on Wednesday I woke up to no electricity. Yep that's right. I had no heat (yeah sure the calendar says it's Spring, I'll believe it when the weather starts acting like it). I had no mans of cooking breakfast. I also had a very hard time moving around in the bathroom.

Luckily I had some food I didn't need a microwave or hot water maker for and was able to eat that. I managed to put on make via cell phone and flashlight light. These things were still harder to pull off without overhead lights, but I at least looked decent. The coffee situation, though, had to wait until I got to my office. Three cups of coffee later and I was finally awake enough to realize my situation could have been worse.

The first thing I did, after noticing that my bedside light wouldn't go on, was to call my maintenance people. I left a message and quickly called BGE. BGE (the electric and gas company near me) informed me they already knew about the situation and were working to fix it. The estimated time for power to return 9:30, well after I was planning on leaving for work. I also have probably mentioned this, but the maintenance guys kind of know who I am. So they were nice enough to give me a call (fairly soon after the BGE call) and told me it had been a blown transformer or transfuse box (something along those lines). I got a little chuckle with the blown transformer idea (well my car is called Silverstreak).

I got to work almost an hour earlier than usual and finally got my coffee. I am fairly certain I looked like a hot mess all day, but not many people were in. Still all of this made me reflect on how important electricity is in my life. It is so ingrained that I hardly think about turning on a light or making coffee. I know I'm a bit crazy about my electrical consumption (to the point I unplug all devices in my kitchen when I'm not using them), but not having the option to turn on a light is scary and annoying. I do have candles, but you got to be careful to light anything (or anyone) on fire.

However, given the choice, I would still take no electricity over no water. I can at least survive without electricity, but water is vital to life (not to mention hygiene). If I lost power for the long term, I would be annoyed, but could survive. If I lost water for an indefinite period, I would flip out. I know have a new appreciation for having clean water I can use. With everything in he news recently about contaminated water in PA and WV, I am thankful for every glass full.

If you liked this post (or it really pissed you off) please leave a comment or share with your friends, family and/or your worst enemy. I love hearing from my readers and hope you enjoyed this week's post. Until next week!

Welcome To A Nice Break

Hello again loyal readers and followers (I know you exist). You guys probably noticed that I didn't post last week. Oops. Well I have a good reason for not posting last week. I was in Disney World! It was wonderful! It was warm and sunny and I got to wear shorts for the first time in a really long time. Of course when I touched down at BWI there was about six inches of snow on the ground. Good feelings gone.

To tell you the truth I really needed the break. This winter has almost killed me. It has been cold and gross. I have not enjoyed it, especially since I hadn't had real snow in four years. This is not what I like in a winter. I need Spring! Technically the equinox was on Thursday, technically they're calling for snow on Tuesday and I feel like I've been sucked into the Twilight Zone. This is why I needed a break with sun and no snow.

I was a kid in the candy store when I went. I hit all four parks in three days. I'd like to thank my cousin for the wonderful time and hope to see her again (most likely in the dead of winter when I need a vitemin D boost). I definatly did not act like an adult, though I did have an excellent Margarita at Mexico in Epcot. My cousins friends also sort of assumed I was a very tall twelve year old.

When I got back to the office I felt like I was out of whatever funk I had fallen into before leaving. I felt revitalized and really happy. I felt amazing and was ready to go back to work. So I feel I have a good reason for skipping last week's post.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please so ment or share with your friend a, family or worst enemy. I love hearing from my readers. Until next week!

Welcome To The Learning Curve

Careful It Can Change Without Warning...

I like to think that I know a lot of things. I understand that I am young and still have a lot to learn, but I tend to be under the illusion that I know how to do normal adult things. Key word in that sentence: illusion. Sure I know how to cook food and drive a car, but there are so many additional components that add on to the "cook" and "drive" action. For instance I do not always know how to fix broken components on my car, but I do know when I need to seek professional experience (or most of the time I do). I also am perfectly capable to cook an egg, but might lack the knowledge that if you put a lid over the cooking egg it might explode. Did you know it might explode? I didn't either until yesterday, but it wasn't that traumatizing.

Some things I have learned since starting out:

1. Things will break because they are old, not just because you did something stupid. In this case I call the apartment maintenance people. If you have any questions about why I suggest this, see any of my post about my toilet situation.
2. There is very little you can do about electrical and gas prices, but you can always find ways of cutting back on usage. When I was at school and in my parent's house, I didn't worry about silly things like heating bills and would hardly notice when people would change the thermostat. I happen to like my world a little on the cold side (though with this winter I'm looking forward to swim suite season more and more). I didn't always remember to turn it back up when I had people over and they would end up shivering.
3. A lot of things are expensive. It's not just the gas and electric bills that can be high. Everything is paid for by yours truly now. I have to budget and keep track of my spending. It's tough, but so far I've been successful with it. If I really want something I have to make sure it either fits into the budget or I have to save for it. Maybe I'll do a "How to save in the first year of starting out" for those who are curious as to my method.
4. Making friends is hard especially people your own age. I'm not kidding, unless you are moving to a place where you already know people or there is a great social life just waiting for you (read any major city in America), you might have a hard time figuring out how to make friends in your area and aren't at work. I finally found an Anime club to join and have been going to church. My area isn't exactly hopping with activities for people just out of school and I'm a bit shy about meeting lots of new people right away.
5. You will continue to find out about things you never knew you didn't know about. Hand washing, how to fix the circuit breaker in you apartment, anything bad that can happen to your car, all of these things I never would have thought about before leaving home. I had other people to do these things for me (wow does that make me sound like a spoiled brat). Anyway, now I'm learning all of these things for myself. Some of them are hard to manage (finding a dentist I trust for one). Others make me feel real accomplished for learning how to master (hand washing).

Some of these things are hard to learn (and I'm notorious for learning things the hard way ). But with some patients, a little trial and error and a whole lot of luck, they can be learned and put into practice. I enjoy learning new things and this list doesn't even count the things I'm learning from the work environment. So the next time someone asks a question you feel they should already know, please stop and take a second to consider where they are in life and then help them to understand why its important they learn these things because I'm pretty sure I blew off a few of these lessons in my school days. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please leave a comment or share it with your friends, family or worst enemy. I enjoy hearing back from my readers and I hope you enjoy my posts. Until next week.

Welcome To Do It Yourself

It's okay to ask for help...

I like to think of myself as self sufficient. I know that isn't always the case, but in my mind I could go off the grid if I had too. I enjoy working with my hands and love the feeling of burning muscles after a long day of manual labor. Perhaps I chose the wrong path by getting a job where I sit at a desk most of the day, but I do like my job. 

I like being able to fix things and enjoy learning alternatives ways of doing a task (see my post about hand washing my cloths, I've actually expanded my practice). This weekend, my college roommate accidentally blew a fuse in the kitchen while making breakfast. When I went to go pay the rent I told one of the handy men and he came down and showed me how to fix it without getting someone else. It was pretty easy, though a little different from the setup I was used to back at my parents house. It was nice to know how to fix it, however the circuit breaker is in an outdoor closet where spiders like to hang out in the summer. I think that will encourage me to not blow a fuse.

I still have toilet problems every now and again. A few weeks ago my toilet decided to flood my only bathroom in a magnificent display of exploding water. It turned out that one of the hoses that fills the tank had come loose and was spraying water in the wrong direction (as in into my bathroom instead of into the tank). I was able to jury rig the toilet to stop it from spraying water everywhere, but still called the handy men for help. They took another look at my tank and said that what I did was correct, but since my toilet was so old they were going to have to replace much of the tank anyway.

Honestly, I think most of the handy men know who I am. I tend to be a little paranoid about my apartment since it's my first place and I don't want anything to happen to it. I also tend to ask them questions when they come to make emergency repairs and they don't mind showing me how to fix it either per inanely or until they can either replace the part.

I feel the maintenance people at my old college should have done something similar. I lived in a house on campus my senior year and we managed to have to call the maintenance people several times (once for blowing a fuse because we used two microwaves at the same time). They always kept the door locked to the area were the fuse box was and wouldn't let us see how they fixed something. I'm not sure if they were worried if we'd break something or if we'd hurt ourselves, but it would have been nice if they had explained to us what to do in these situations. Well at least before we caused significant damage. Of coarse we knew to grab a fire extinguisher for fires (or just get the hell out of the building), but simple plumbing and electrical problems were not covered in how to live in a dorm 101. Should they have been? I don't know, college students aren't always known for respecting the place they sleep at night. It still would have been nice to know what had been going on.

Eventually I would like to be able to fix any problem that I might run into in my own home. Right now the internet is a great resource. Watching Youtube videos is very helpful. However I think the best way to learn how to do so,etching is to physically fix it myself. I'm going to keep learning how to fix things (maybe I'll get to my Wii someday). It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please leave a comment or share. I love hearing from my readers and hope you find my life's journey as entertaining as I try to. Until next week readers.