No Electricity = Playing Cranium Alone!

Mrs. Baby Blows a Fuse
There are signs all over my apartment building written in my landlord's horrible English (he once wrote me a note addressed to "Mrs. Baby"). They warn that using the "air-conditioned" with "other electrical like hair dryer or microwave" will blow a fuse. Did I heed these warnings? No. I was blow drying my hair yesterday, and suddenly I had no power. I knocked on the super's door, but no one was home. I left him a note, and went back to my apartment.

Playing With Myself
I hadn't really realized how dependent I am on electricity. I just sat there in the middle of my living room for a while trying to think of something to do. I could watch TV... no wait, that takes power. Oh, I'll listen to music... oh, yeah, can't do that. Um... I could read... no, it's too dark. I could watch TV... wait, no, I tried that already.

Eventually, I decided to get out this new board game I got called Cranium. You really need at least four people to play it, but I played it alone anyway. There are four different categories of challenges: Data (which tests your general knowledge), Words (there are spelling challenges, fill in the blank, and quizzes on what different words mean), Creative (you have to draw something and have your team guess what it is, sometimes with your eyes closed... or else make something out of clay and have them guess), and Performance (you have to convey the idea on the card either through silent gestures or imitation... or else hum a song and they have to guess what it is). At one point I was sitting in my apartment alone, humming "Born to be Wild."

"Wow, that was really good," I said to myself, "The team totally would have gotten which song that was. I'll roll again." That is how the game pretty much played out. Oh, and by the way, I won.

Boy Interrupted
After the game, it was really dark in my apartment, so I decided to take a nap out of boredom. I finally woke up around 9PM or so when Pam called to see if I wanted to hang out with her and Ximena.

I went downstairs to see if my super was home yet. I saw my note crumpled on the floor. Bastard!

I picked it up and knocked on the door. There was music blaring loudly inside. After several minutes, it was eventually turned down, and a Latino kid, who looked to be around the age of 12, opened the door a crack. His face was all red, he was covered in sweat, and he was out of breath. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and his pants seemed to have been thrown on very haphazardly. Did I just interrupt something? He looked 12 years old! Maybe younger!

"Um... hi," I said, "Um... my power's out. I left this note..."
"What?" he asked. "I don't understand,"
"My fuse... I blew a fuse. I have no power. Could you leave this note for the super?"
He looked very confused, but took the note anyway, and shut the door. I walked back up to my apartment with sure that I would never have power again.

I sat on my couch in the dark and listened to my upstairs neighbors fighting in the hopes of entertaining myself. The fight was just getting good, when my power miraculously returned. Even though I had electricity again, I still sat there listening to the fight for another 30 minutes before leaving to go meet Pam and Ximena.