Friday, June 10, 2011

E-Trade Babies, Duckies, Kitties, Hot Dogs and Power Outages

If the title of this blog post doesn't warn you about the erratic nature of this blog, then you're on your own. This will mostly cover the events of the last 24 hours of my life, and I promise, it will be eventful.

It starts out during my work shift at the Hartman Union Building, or the HUB for short. First off, the HUB is awesome, not just because it's a great work environment with great people, but there are regular visits from cute babies on a normal basis. Yesterday, Linda's son Finn was brought in.

This is where I go on a slight selling of this kid: He has some of the best facial expressions ever, and he is fascinated by computer screens and whatever is on them. I mean, the kid looks like an E-Trade baby..

Hey E-Trade. Make good choices in life. Look at this face, don't you see baby advertising greatness in it? Trust me, you will not be disappointed with him.                         
Just saying, you'll be missing out on this kid and his wonderful facial expressions...Just saying.

After spending quality time with the little guy, I got out of work and prepared to meet up with Robby, the significant other, who I don't see as much as I would wish. And by getting ready I spent time on Facebook. God that's such a time killer. Which will not be so readily available later on.

Anyhow, he lives a few miles away on a river that feeds into a lake, and while I was happy to be seeing him, I was much more excited about the fact that I was going to see the new baby ducklings that had been hanging around his house. Yes, I have a soft spot for baby animals. Robby knows that when there are baby animals around my priorities shift, and he's completely fine with it. Deal with it. 

So, when we get to his house, all hell on earth breaks loose, weather wise. Robby had to go save his chairs as they were thrown into the river and there was flying debris everywhere. I'll be quite honest, it was quite scary, and reminded me of storms that I had experienced in the Mid-West as a kid. Robby got inside safe and sound, but I then noticed a lone duck sitting out in the open in his yard. I'll be honest, I yelled at the duck to go find shelter. But I shortly thereafter realized why she wasn't moving.

                                            


They were hiding in the hostas nearby, but they all of a sudden came out and were trying to get closer to their  mom. So there I am, freaking out because there are flying branches and sticks coming from every direction, and I'm afraid that the ducklings will get hurt. Eventually their mother herded them over towards a sturdy adirondack chair, but of course I would continue to freak out until the storm had passed. At times I do wonder how the hell Robby can deal with me and my fatal flaws, such as love for baby animals, or when I have bitchy moments.

Eventually, the storm did calm down and pass, and out from under a bed came Carl, Robby's roommate.             
                               

Yes, Carl is a cat. But he's awesome, chunky and adorable. He's also a great cathartic snuggle machine when I get stressed over homework. Even though Carl is not necessarily my cat (and if my cats knew about Carl, they'd kill me), I feel like he's one of my furry friends from back home. However, Carl was not in the mood for much snuggling and petting yesterday. He saw potential dinner options sitting outside the window, so that continued to take his focus for the remainder of the evening.

So, with the ducklings all safe and the cat entertained, Robby and I made dinner, which was originally supposed to be a cookout/picnic, but the weather kind of killed that avenue of cooking. But, it was still quite delicious guilty food.



While it may appear that these are just hot dogs, they're really delicious hot dogs with the chili and  mozzarella cheese nestled underneath the tubers of pork. I mean, while it is simple, it's still delicious, and more so, I was quite content to sit there and enjoy a simple yet good meal with Robby. While watching ducklings through the window.



Eventually I did need to go back to my apartment, and was hoping to blog about this day last night. However, due to the storms that came through earlier in the day, the town had lost power. Which meant no Facebook and no blogging. So, without any internet access and with my computer battery dying, I decided to read by candlelight, with the sideshow of watching my roommate trying to find something entertaining to do, as he will die like a vampire in the sun if he doesn't have internet access. I mean, it was entertaining. It was just a little sad to know that people are that dependent upon electronics, particularly my generation and our dependence on the internet. I know that I am quite dependent, particularly with Facebook and email. However, if someone threw me onto a deserted island for two months with no cell service and internet, I couldn't be happier. People lived without internet and electricity before. Besides, unless there's a war going on or unless you're from California, you know the power's coming back on. Just try to be resourceful and patient, people.

So, yesterday was a day filled with excitement, terror, cuteness, humor and happiness. This almost sounds like a 1960s Disney movie. Or the Land Before Time. Except this is real life, and many times its simple joys are overlooked. Of course, I'm just happy there are no Sharp Tooths floating around. Unless they're babies, then they may be cute. But I digress.

I leave you with one last factoid for the day: What do you do when you have an electronically dependent human being in your life who happens to love Apple products and can't cope with power outages? Make them read a book. They don't like books, you say? Give them something by Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. That will distract them for a while.

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