Blackout

While many people were having a terrible time without most of their electronic devices and lights, I was having a wonderful time during the blackout! Ever since I was little and had the blackout during Hurricane Isabella, I’ve always loved them so much. Without electronics, you get to spend a lot of time with your family, doing things you normally wouldn’t do, which I really enjoy, however odd it may be... considering how often I am on the computer.

The blackout happened when my baby sister, Sophie, and I were in the middle of watching ‘My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic’. As soon as the TV turned off when we lost power, Sophie started crying and whining about how she wanted to watch more, so my step dad took her to the park to calm down. Not knowing when the power was going to come back on, my brother and I rushed to finish our homework before it got dark. We worked outside in the backyard, as it was lighter out there. I also brought my old, battery-powered MP3 player out back with me, along with my speakers so we could have some music. However, when we found out that school was cancelled for Friday, we almost immediately stopped doing our homework, of course.

Then, we used our fire grill to have a barbeque, and had quite a few people from the neighborhood to come eat dinner with us. After dinner was done, our next door neighbor who works for the Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company had a truckload of ice cream that was going to go to waste from the lack of power to produce cold air, so instead of letting that happen, we had a huge neighborhood ice cream party, and then roasted giant marshmallows!

Once it got really dark, I took Sophie outside to go star gazing, and with the lack of lights, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. I pointed out the constellations Scorpio, Big Dipper, and Orion’s Belt to Sophie. After dragging her back inside so my mom could get her and Savannah to bed, my brothers and I lit up tiki torches in the backyard, and my eldest brother spilled lighter fluid all over himself in the process… after we got them all lit, I turned on my speakers again and we just sat there for a few hours talking and singing along to the music. After my mom got the girls to bed, we played a game of Apples to Apples, in which I discovered I was an ancient European super hobo from the past. Or just Super hobo Emily for short, which spells “SHE”! My mom said that she imagined me with an old blanket tied around my neck going “SHE is here!” Also, my mom became my edible sidekick! Ah, the wonders of Apples to Apples...

After the game, I got some of the left over chocolate ice cream, which was almost entirely melted at that point, poured a bunch of chocolate syrup in it, and ate it right out of the container it came in. I had always wanted to do that... Lifelong dream number ten, check!

Anyways, after my mom and step dad went up to bed, my brothers and I went around smelling all of the candles, which oddly enough taste like their scent when you breathe in the air around them… then, we shone our flashlight at another house and made giant hand shadows! After that, we just ran around the house singing "That's Your Horoscope for Today".

We did a lot more, but that would take a long time to go through, and I believe this is already long enough… but our power came back at 2:00 AM, and Michael felt some compelling need to wake us all up and inform us. How… thoughtful of him. Even so, I had a great time, and although a lot of people were displeased with the lack of power, my family is always prepared to have a great time without electricity!