I blame Starbucks.

Driving home from work, I noticed that a number of traffic signals were on the fritz. I didn't think much of it, except that it was causing a lot of delay and annoying me. Well, it turned out that electricity was out for my entire block. This was fine at first, because I was reading The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks is ever so slightly a better writer than Dan Brown, but not by much ... still, I was moved by the story), but then it got dark and suddenly I had nothing to do. Yes, it came to pass: I was alone in the dark like a dog.

All told, power was out for about 2 1/2 hours, and I'm not sure why. It hailed a bit earlier today, but it didn't last very long. We've never had power go out for more than half an hour, so I kept thinking that it would be back any second. I called my parents, and ropo, and jade_okelani to bitch about how bored I was (obviously, I couldn't let them go about their electricity-full lives if I couldn't), and they finally convinced me to go find a coffee place and finish the rest of The Notebook there.

So I drove to the nearest Starbucks, but it was completely packed. I got a hot chocolate by driving thru, and decided to go back home and see if the electricity had come back. AND LO AND BEHOLD, IT HAD. I'd been gone for no more than 10 minutes!!! Coincidence? I think not.

The whole thing was clearly a scheme perpetrated by Starbucks so they could get $2.30 out of me that they otherwise wouldn't have had. And it wasn't even hot and didn't have whipped cream. *shakes fist*

I did finish The Notebook. I wept a bit, but was resentful about it. The situation more than the actual writing is what brought on the waterworks. Then I went and watched the trailer again. It's pushing all my sappy romantic idealist buttons!