Dark

Heading north on the bus, the vegan pizza place is dark, I think it's odd, but maybe it's just early.  The theatre next door is dark, hmmm. Oh, well the street is dark.  Oh, the lights are out.  The power's out.  Rounding the corner, the lights are out to the west, but on the east side of the street, the apartments are lit.  Dark up the street.  I'm crossing my fingers that our power is on.  Delivery cars are circled in the parking lot and the drivers are standing outside of a dark pizza place.  Lights out east, west, and north.  We pass my street, traffic backing up, lights out in all directions.  I get off the bus five blocks further, the bus lights shine on the windows of the pub, there are people inside by the window; lights haven't been out long.

I worry about being hit by a car, I'm wearing dark clothing. I wave my arms and make it across intersections one and two.  Almost bump into two people on the sidewalk, ask them what happened. They don't know, said it's been about ten minutes. Ask if I've seen the show "Revolution" or something to that effect.  Say that it starts like this.  Make it home the long way.  Bump into my housemate, smoking on the stairs. Said he went up on the roof and watch the lights drop off.  Said he saw a flash of light to the south.  I stumble inside, and down the stairs.  Remarkable how much light comes in from the sliver of a moon reflecting off of white walls.

I drop off my stuff and leave, taking a flashlight.  Make my way through a clusterfk of traffic (it's 6 pm on a Friday night) without getting hit, make it almost ten blocks before I realize that I don't have my ticket. Turn around, go back.  Get lucky that a clump of people show up in the intersection, safety in numbers.  Go back into house, four helicopters hovering around.  Big, scary, helicopter hovering over house.  Creepy.

Back out on the street, a cop happens to get to the intersection same time as me, flashes me across.  Stop outside a bar ten blocks further, recognize a bartender, ask if she knows what happened.  Nope, can't find anything on her phone.  They noticed the creepy helicopter as well.  Someone lights a fire in their yard down the block, I can see arms waving around.  Sirens blare.  High, lonely whine of planes passing over; rotor blades of helicopter slapping at the air fill the sky.  A police car shoots up north.  We look up at the sky since there isn't any light pollution to block out the stars.  Lovely.

Ten blocks later, I notice a house with a porch light, someone says something about power back on. Low and behold, it is.  It's hit and miss, block by block.  Apparently, ours didn't come back until 8 pm.  I realize it's been a long time since I've walked this far in the dark; it's the time change.  I get to the University District and stop to buy a falafel, since I couldn't cook.  There is electricity in the air, people more talkative and energetic than usual.  I walk to the venue, go find somewhere to sit and eat my falafel.  All the sauce pools up and finally drips all over me.  I run to the compost bin and finish eating the falafel over it.  It's a really good, just messy.

When I finally clean off the sauce, and make my way to my seat, I find that someone has left me a note and chocolate.  It says, "Thank you for volunteering." or something to that effect:)  Someone mentions "crab legs" and I look up and realize that my very first theatre instructor is sitting one row up and a few seats over from me.  (He taught movement...I have no memory of what we actually did in that class, only the final projects.  He was a dancing crab in a commercial a long time ago.)

I enjoyed the show more than I expected to.  I didn't know what to expect.  Half the time, the music put me in what I can only describe as a trance, though.  I dropped into it during the songs, but was wide awake between them.  Not all of them, but almost half.  Strange. I woke up once stopping myself from throwing my hair clip.  I was half hoping my arm would be healed by the end of it. Nope:(

I went to the post-reception.  By the time I came home, everything had calmed back down.  The clouds had begun to return and the light had dulled the stars.  When I looked it up, the power had all been restored, but it seemed unclear what exactly had happened.

I never did vacuum.