Here Comes The Story Of Hurricane

Now recapping Day Four of BT11, brought to you by the letter "I" (thanks Hurricane Irene...thanks a LOT).

(Note: the delay in posting is also courtesy of Irene...but more on that in the next posting.)

So, the hurricane made her way to Massachusetts today. We hit a breakfast joint early in hopes of avoiding a power outage, and we were lucky. The power went out about 10 minutes after we got our food. Back to the hotel we went, just in time for their power to go off.

Power Outage Time: 9:43 a.m.

Current Time (still with no power): 9 p.m.

Here's what I learned today while trapped in a hotel room in MA:

1. I get bored very easily.
   With a little bit of daylight coming through (even though it was quite dark and dreary outside), I could at least read for while. But then I finished my book. So then I cleaned up some of my mess, like my new purchases and papers. But then I finished that, too. So then I slept for a while. But then I woke up. So then, we played cards for a while. But then we got hungry. Seriously, I couldn't handle living in the days of yore. It's not that I'm a technology junkie or anything. I'm doing quite fine this week without a cell phone and stuff. It's just, when the power goes out at home, at least there's always something to do, even if it's just cleaning the house. But away from all your things, gets boring REAL fast.
2. I get very snippy when I'm housebound.
   This is especially true when I first wake up and discover that we still have no power. If life hasn't improved by the time I am back to a conscious state, then what's the point of waking up? And I tend to take out that attitude on the people closest to me...and yet, he's still with me! As previously mentioned, best boyfriend ever.
3. Always travel with a deck of cards.
   We didn't follow this advice. Fortunately, on one of our walks down to the lobby to find out what was going on (and to get away from the room for a few minutes), the front desk clerk gave us a free deck of cards from their collection of stuff to buy. We played several games of Crazy Eights, until we got too hungry. After we ate, we played Rummy, which I suck at, but it is quite fun! I will never leave home without a deck of cards again.
4. Always travel with a flashlight.
   More sage advice that we, again, did not follow. This is very important for those times when you need to be in a room by yourself behind closed doors, and you don't necessarily want to share everything you do. And again, I will NEVER leave home without a flashlight.
5. Americans cannot tell time.
   We actually discovered this outside of the hotel. Some of the restaurants nearby got their power back around suppertime, so we left in search of grub. The first place we went had people lined up outside. We were told it would be a 45-minute wait, which we agreed to. With one of their little beeper/pager thingies in hand, we left in search of other places that might be open. That was a no-go, so back to the first place. After 35 minutes, we went inside to check how long we had to wait still. The girl told us it would be an hour. "Is that in addition to the 45 minutes we've already waited?" I inquired. "Yes," she replied with a dumb look on her face. We said, "Forget you," and headed down the road. Luckily, there was a little Mexican fast food place that a lot of people didn't know was open, so we snuck in there. Awesome quesadillas, lovely corn chips, and Dr. Pepper fountain pop. Me and my belly were both pretty happy afterwards.

Remind me to never travel again during a hurricane.