Back home safely!

Shhh - don't tell, but I've actually been back in Chicago since Wednesday night. My lack of updates can be easily explained, though. I got in late Wednesday. Thursday was the first day of school. Friday I worked all day and just as I sat down to give a real update the power went out! So you all had to wait until today.

The power - that was crazy. Chicago apparently does not know what to do with weather. Near the beginning of winter we had about a week of winter. Snow - negative temperatures - super chilly. Then it started warming up. Today, as an example, I wore a tank top with a light cardigan over it. I had my coat with me, but I didn't wear it. Thursday the high was 56. Madness, I tell you! Madness!

Yesterday, though, the weather briefly remembered that it is January - in Chicago. It snowed like ca-razy. The weather report said the high would be 44 and it would be sunny. By quarter to 7 when I left for work it was raining. By 11 it was snowing. It snowed and it snowed and it was gross wet snow that comes just following a rain when it's barely cold enough to snow. I worked and came home and let myself rest for awhile. I was just sitting down to blog when my computer went out - and my lights - and .. well .. everything. Our circuit breaker is notorious for just randomly going wonky. Part of our apartment is hooked into the neighbor's circuit, half of it with the other neighbor's. I don't understand - it all gets sorted out somewhere. At first I thought that the circuit had just broken somewhere. Then I realized it was both halves of the apartment that had lost electricity.

I opened the door to the hallway and discovered pitch blackness. Working at a store that sells tons of candles, I just so happen to have tons of candles. I lit some then made sure everyone in the building had them. On a random note - if you are making an "in case of emergency" tub that has candles in it? Get pillar candles or jar candles or anything but tapers! Don't get me wrong - I love tapers as much as the next taper lover, but you have to find a candle holder for them and they don't last as long. Pillars really aught to have a holder just to be sure, but they don't NEED one to stand up and not catch everything on fire.

Since I have so many candles I started putting them all in the bathroom to create for myself a cozy well lit reading place. I was thinking of how I'd take a picture with my new digital camera (!!!) of my beautiful candle lit reading space/bathroom and blog about said space and how the lights going out really made my night so homey and cozy and made me a better person. Unfortunately, just as I was finishing getting the space ready (an hour and a half after the lights went out), the lights came back on, so I did what anyone else would do and played EQOA all night.