08.15.03 - 11:54 a.m.

"You should sleep late, man, it's just much easier on your constitution."
--Beastie Boys, "Professor Booty"

Oh, Blackout '03. How you have answered my prayers and crushed my dreams in one fell swoop. I swear, for weeks I'd been hoping the power would suddenly cut out at work and we could go home. Just a day off for those of us depressed behind our cube walls. Just a mini-crisis, something small enough that it wouldn't hurt us in the long run but big enough to incapacitate us work-wise for the day.

Of course, it happens at 4:15 on a day when I was going to leave at 5 anyway to go into the city and have fun with my friend Absolut. Damn you, blackout! I miss 45 minutes of work to crawl home in traffic and sit in a stuffy apartment?!? I thought we had a deal!

Hrrmmphh.

So many tradeoffs in life. I am at work today because I live in Jersey. I did not get the decree from Mayor Bloomberg to STAY HOME, PEOPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I had to drag myself here and make it somewhat of a normal workday. But I DID get to go home last night at a fairly decent hour, and read a book, and take a bath, and all those other fun things you do when the power's out. If I lived in Manhattan or Brooklyn, I'd have the day off, but I might not have made it home last night. I might still be waiting for a bus. Or walking across the GW Bridge.

In the end, I think I got the better deal, especially since there was a Dan involved. Life with a Dan is so much better than trudging across a bridge in hundred-degree weather.