What I did when the power went out in San Diego…

Sitting at work, just finished teaching class, and around 330 everything went dark. Figured it was a temporary thing, or just pertained to our building. So I hung out doing some non-computer related work when we heard that the ENTIRE city, from Oceanside to Chula Vista was out of power. I will admit that for some reason I thought that was kinda cool at 1st. I can’t imagine this has ever happened before. Then I realized that all of the traffic lights would be out for my 15 mile ride home – uh oh. Time to get outta the office and onto the road!
I walk out to the parking garage and see one of my coworkers coming BACK to the office. He said he isn’t even going to try to get out of here right now and that by 410, things were already crazy on the road. Apparently sitting around his dark office seemed more fun than being stuck in traffic (don’t ask me what he was doing in there).
So I brave the roads. Simply getting off campus takes me about 25 minutes, but I figured once I hit the freeway it should be a lil easier. However I am quickly corrected when I see the traffic at a dead halt on the 15 North, which is the way I drive home. Scrap that, let’s do something else. I call Basham to see if he can check his Ipad for internet service and let me know what’s up with traffic. At this point there is no radio available so I am really struggling for some information about what is going on.
I get on the 805 North and it is smooth sailing! Literally no delays whatsoever and I am flying home. Hooray for me …until I realize that I don’t know how to get home this “back” way so I call Basham for assistance again. Now the phone lines are starting to get jammed and we can only communicate via text. And what is this beeping sound on my phone….battery is dying?! AHHH! My only saving grace is that I have at least ½ a tank of gas in my car. Otherwise the next 2 hours I am about to spend in the car could’ve easily been even more hellish.
Ok so I know I DON’T want the Mira Mesa Blvd exit because there are so many businesses around there and about 4000 traffic lights before I get home. If this power outage had happened at noon, I think we wouldn’t have had this perfect storm of chaos. But when the power goes out close to 4pm, EVERYONE is going to leave work at the exact same time.
Instead I take the next exit up for Sorrento Valley Rd. Still a major cluster dump but it HAS to be better than Mira Mesa Blvd. I want to text Basham to make sure I am going the right way, but my phone has died. I continue on my path until…what’s this?….detour due to traffic collision?….where are you directing me to go Mr. Police Offic….NOOOOO.
Mira Mesa Blvd it is.
At this point I have been on the road for almost 90 minutes. My typical commute is between 15 and 20. And even though I am still about 3-4 miles away from my house, I am seriously considering parking my car and walking. Or hiking my skirt up and getting someone on a motorcycle to steer us through all of this traffic. Basham can bring me back later to get my car.
I say to myself, “If I get through this next intersection within 5 minutes, I am going for it.” I am able to pass through unscathed and finally make it to a more residential area, with much less traffic lights.
On a positive note, I did see some cool things during this trek. An old white dude in his pickup truck gave a bottle of water to a young black female police officer as she was directing traffic (racism solved!). I didn’t notice anyone losing their patience or honking their cars unnecessarily while stuck in this shit storm. And the sense of community I felt from seeing all of the punk ass kids drinking 30 packs of beer in front of their yards really warmed my heart.
I get home to see that Basham has saved the day. Not only has he gone to the store and gotten batteries, matches, ice and an extra cooler, but a big ol’ jug of red wine. Normally we wouldn’t drink something that would be such an affront to our overly mature palettes, but if the world isn’t actually ending tonight then we need to save some money for this weekend.
Husband says he lucked out with his timing at the grocery store. The staff had all of the goods outside and were only selling limited items. He had 7 people in front of him when he arrived and by the time he left there were almost 100 people in line (again mostly young men with armloads of beer).
So he ends up cooking this amazing meal by candlelight – what? Go ‘head husband. We have a gas stove and outdoor grill so we were good to go! Grilled asparagus, salad and sautéed shrimp. And although I wouldn’t normally have champagne with dinner, the contents of our fridge aren’t gonna last much longer so might as well.
We eat outside with candles and wine (and champagne) and it was delicious and romantic. I am a lucky girl.
Around 9pm we take the dogs out for a long walk and check out the neighborhood. Relatively quiet considering all that’s happening, and that is alright with me.
Get back home and sit down. Best cure for power outage? Chianti and Percocet – now we are talking! So we begin to settle for the evening and Basham uses his Ipad for internet. “Let me see what’s going on….yeah, looks like the Packers are gonna win and Drew Brees has thrown 3 touchdowns.”
Really? That’s not the update I was expecting, but thanks for entertaining me.
1st world problems start to set in – we are all out of the “good” wine and only have the Ipad charged to about 60%. Man I hope we can watch an episode of Game of Thrones before it goes dead! How do people live like this???
We watch our show, start drinking the jug wine, and then hear something outside. Somehow Peanut has managed to open the screen door in the back yard, run out there, get into a fight with a possum, and get his dumb ass sprayed right in the face. Stupid dog – don’t you realize we are in the middle of a major catastrophe? We can’t have you getting into fights with skunks and possums and bears and bringing the stank into our house- the nerve!
Next time I am just gonna lock him outside with the creature until they make up and become friends.
So our night ends with us hosing the dogs down in the dark, me crashing on the couch and Basham in the bed because it’s just too damn hot for us both to get in there together.
Power comes on at some point, but I don’t know exactly what time bc all the clocks read 12:00.
I plug my phone in to charge and sleep in. No alarms go off bc, well, we haven’t reset them, and so I just magically wake up at 8am. Turn on my phone and see 2 voicemails and 10 text messages.
3 of them are from my boss telling me to report to work at 9am – WTF?! Are you serious? Did a syphilis bomb go off? Bc as the Sexual Health Educator, unless there is a Chlamydia leak on campus, I really don’t know why I am considered an essential employee.
Therefore I have been at work for the last 3 hours and the only thing I have accomplished is writing this blog. It is a ghost town around here since classes were cancelled but for some reason, the health center remains open. But I am going to stop complaining – if someone thinks I am essential then I will be here. Job stability! And who knows….someone might rush in here at any minute to discuss a very urgent birth control matter.

best… Birthday… EVER!

The week started out great – we booked a trip to Hawaii for this March. YAY! It was also a relatively easy teaching schedule for me at both universities and its Basham’s birthday. Sounds good, right?

Well if you agreed then you are an idiot.

Friday night Basham is driving home at about 11pm and his check engine light comes on. Then the battery light comes on. Then smoke starts coming out of the hood. All signs point to BAD. He makes it off the freeway and relatively close to home when it just dies on him. Some good Samaritans were there to help push his car out of a major intersection…and right into the curb where his tire popped and now the alignment is all f’d up too.

Tow truck gets called but will take 30 mins to get there. He makes it home, goes to bed, then calls the same tow dude (I think that’s the official name for these guys) to pick him up and get towed to the mechanics the next morning. At 3pm we have not heard back from them and they are also closed on Sunday. Which means we will need to get a rental car so he can get to work on Monday….

Don’t worry – he got a pimp ass Chevy Aveo to drive around. OOOOOOOhhhh – fancy. Luckily Basham LOVED this car because we had to pay for it a second day as well.

Finally get the call on Tuesday with the damage report. About $350. I didn’t think I would be so happy with a $350 mechanics bill, but we were worried it would be way higher. I should’ve realized that it was only Tuesday and so much more could go wrong as the week progressed.

So now he has his car back, but at some point needs to get a tire to replace the one that popped AND get his alignment fixed. This all needs to take place at 3 different locations – tire place, mechanics and alignment specialist. We were at least getting good referrals to places with decent reviews.

New tire, check. Working engine ….uncheck (?) The car is overheating and is leaking coolant. Fun. Now Basham has to take his car back to the mechanic. They spend another 4 hours on the car and Basham gets to walk home from the body shop – about one hour. Currently he has made this walk 3 times this week. At least he is getting exercise.

Now we owe another $315 to replace the coolant reservoir (I really like that phrase actually). The guys at the shop seem pretty decent so we don’t feel like we are getting ripped off. They sincerely feel bad when Bash keeps bringing his car in. They offered to drive him home today – the day I let him have my car. Thanks anyway…

So after a day of him walking all over San Diego, it is time to celebrate his birthday! I leave work a lil late, go to the grocery store and get some of his favorite things = salmon, expensive wine, oreos, etc. Rush home to cook. I give him his birthday present (Eric Clapton tickets) and was so glad he liked it. Get in the shower real quick so I can start cooking. I am already hungry and it’s gonna take about an hour to get dinner ready.

We have some wine and I start furiously peeling potatoes. Get those started and put the salmon in the oven. It is stuffed with spinach and feta and smells SO good! Potatoes are boiling and I put some corn in the microwave. 40 mins pass and it’s time to take out the salmon. I grab the hot dish and place it on the stove. Apparently I don’t know how to do that and it spills all over our new rug. Basham hears the crash and comes into the kitchen. Now our beautiful salmon is all over the floor with little pieces of dog hair sticking out of it. I pull down the dish to load the spilled salmon onto. Warning: if you put a hot dish on your new kitchen rug it will burn the rug. IDIOT. This weekend I am going to try burning other areas of the rug to make an interesting pattern.

At this point Basham is vacuuming and I am trying not to cry. It’s not my party so I can’t cry if I want to. He gives me a hug and says “let’s go out to eat!”

He is a good husband.

So with all of the fabulous dinner options in lovely Mira Mesa, we head to Buca di Beppo. We hop in his car and……………………the check engine light comes on. FUCK. And we miss the turn for the restaurant, we are now on the freeway. Double FUCK. This better be the best damn spaghetti dinner ever.

At the restaurant I tell the waitress that it’s my husband’s birthday. She is very excited and I feel like a bad wife for bringing my husband out to a lame chain restaurant for dinner. But whatever. We get a free brownie and the entire wait staff singing a meatball related birthday song for Bash.

And then we get to this morning- when Basham goes out to his car and it won’t start. I try to imagine starving kids in Africa to bring my problems into perspective. In general thinking of starving kids always makes me feel better.

At this point we are about $800 in for car , tires, rental etc. I am so glad we are filthy rich.

I think I could write a country song about this – make sure to add a twang when singing out loud

“My wife dropped my birthday dinner on the floor.
Stupid car engine won’t start anymore.
But thank God it’s Friday and my work week is through
I’ll just get me a beer and a whiskey (or two).”

Happy weekend everyone!


Goozgirl.blogspot.com

No longer a laggard!

I just finished teaching a Public Health Theory course for National University. BORRRRING. You can imagine how excited the students must’ve felt considering that even the teacher didn’t want to be there. But we managed to make it through…

One of the first nights of class we discussed the Diffusion of Innovation Model. This describes how quickly certain groups of people adopt new concepts. My example was the IPOD. Some people stood in line for hours to be the 1st ones to have this new technology - these are the innovators. Eventually the majority of people catch on and for some, it takes us longer to catch up. These are the laggards. I then pointed out that I still did not own an IPOD and was therefore a laggard with respect to this technology.

Class moves forward and I try my damnedest to make the discussion of health belief models and theories of reasoned action somewhat interesting. In general I think the class is doing OK, but you never know.

So we get to our final class and one of the students asks if she can make an announcement before we start the final exam. I figured she had a job opportunity come up that she wanted to share with everyone. I do my housekeeping and then tell Tanisha she can come to the front for her announcement.

She starts talking about some of the theories from class and how she can apply them to her life and blah blah blah. I am barely paying attention when she says “So Angela, we don’t want you to be a laggard anymore.”

She hands me a Hello Kitty lunch bag and inside are kitty related pens, sticky notes, a calculator and an IPOD!
Shut the front door! How awesome is that?!

I was so surprised and truly appreciative for such a thoughtful gift. I guess students still give their teachers apples.

(thanks mia for that one!)

Habla espanol?

At the gas station yesterday I was pumping and heard someone walk up behind me. I turned around to see these guys standing next to my car. >>>>

Odd in general but then one of 'em asked me "Habla Espanol?"

I just looked at him with I'm sure a weird mug on my face and said "No."

What the what??!

Then they walked away.

The guy pumping next to me was looking at the dudes walking away. I asked him "It is weird that those men just asked if I spoke spanish?"

He got way too excited and said "Who? Those JEWS?! No way."

Life isn’t fair – oh yeah, and your bunnies are dead

As the daughter of not one but two military parents, there were many hard lessons to be learned in our house growing up. Saturday morning was for cleaning before you could do anything fun; it is never appropriate to chase your little brother with a baseball bat; and assault rifles use an intermediate cartridge with a detachable magazine.

But there is a lesson learned that is so vivid in my head, I had to share it with you.

My sister and I had two cute little bunnies that we kept in a small cage in our backyard. Sherry’s bunny was all white and so she adequately named it Snowball. I called mine Jennifer.

(Stupid, I know)

Anyway every day after school we would run home, go straight through the house and into the backyard to see our soft and cuddly bunnies. Until one day…

Our mom stopped us before we opened the back door and had this look on her face.
“Girls, I have something to tell you. The big dog that lives next door jumped the fence and got into the bunny cage. Your bunnies are dead. Go outside and see.”

Sherry and I walked our sad, crying little selves over to the bloody cage. Bits of bone and fur were still there, but Jennifer and Snowball had gone to bunny heaven. I don’t know where the dog had run off to…

We just stood by the crate with tears in our eyes and mom came over to us. She said “Hey life isn’t fair” and proceeded to cleanup what was left of our tiny pets.

Blunt.

I mean DANG mom! Can I get some sympathy up in here? But that’s how she was, that’s how she still is, and I love her for it. You gotta learn these things at some point – why not 2nd grade?

Por que no estan en la escuela

I attended a conference last week where the topic was Race and Sexuality. It was put on by the local STD clinic, Planned Parenthood, and other health related groups. We had lots of interesting discussions about race and how it impacts our access to care, especially for sexual health concerns.

During one exercise we had to list stereotypes people have given to certain groups. (Please note these were stereotypes being discussed by a group and not personal opinion.)

We talked about Asian people being good at math, black people being athletic, etc. etc. Since we have a very strong Latino population here in San Diego, we spent a long time discussing people who speak Spanish and the sometimes negative feelings it brings about in others. Sentiments such as “You live in America, you should speak English” were brought up and the concern that when someone switches to another language, it’s because they are talking about YOU.
Lastly we talked about young black women – their attire, lack of ambition, and that they are typically loud. It was a very powerful presentation considering we had plenty of students in attendance that dispelled those myths…

So 30 minutes later I am at lunch by myself across the street from where the conference is taking place. Next to me are two older Mexican women eating and talking. In front of us are two black high school girls that are ordering. I am on the phone with a friend while the girls are ordering and my friend asks “who is yelling in the background?” As the girls continued to talk and order, I hear the women next to me say, in Spanish, “Why are those girls so loud? Por qué son esas chicas tan fuerte? Why aren’t they ever in school? Por qué no están en la escuela?”

Classic.

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