I heart electricity.

So yesterday we had our power turned off. Some guy waltzed into our backyard and when I went to go find out why he told me he was turning off our power because we hadn't paid our bill.

Here is the part where I explain how I am not as irresponsible and stupid as I look. So, yes. Money is tight. Yes, we have a certain amount of trouble paying all of the bills. The power bill is one that gets juggled frequently. And in the past they have been very lax in doing what they say when they say "pay your bill or we turn it off, yo." So I knew we were behind. But I wasn't paying a lot of attention. I knew I was going to get caught up and I was pretty sure nothing was going to happen. I made a payment on Monday online through a third-party website. Tuesday they came and turned it off and I was full of righteous anger at the poor soul who had to do the job. But in my flustered state I totally forgot that I had made a payment at all so I didn't tell him about it. Three minutes after he was gone and I had finished throwing things against the wall in a blind rage (but not so blind that I didn't make sure that whatever I threw wasn't going to break or damage the wall), I remembered that I had actually made a payment.

So I got on the phone and waited more than 30 minutes even though the recording told me that I could give my phone number and have them call me back after more than 30 minutes and I would not lose my place in line. Some poor soul answered (after more than 30 minutes had passed) and I told that poor soul that my power had been turned off but I had made a payment the day before online. She asked where I had done it, I told her, and she told me that they didn't accept payments from that particular site (she didn't mean they didn't accept them, she just meant it wouldn't count when it came to getting it in on time because it would take a couple of days for the payment to go through) and I said bad words and slammed the phone down. I was not at my best. Of course, I only punished myself because I had to call them BACK and wait ANOTHER MORE THAN THIRTY MINUTES and be calm enough to grovel because of course when it comes to electricity, they are the only game in town, so what the hell else am I going to do?

Totally totally my own fault but STILL VERY ANGRY.

So I called back and talked to a very nice person who was not a poor soul because he didn't have to bear the brunt of my misplaced anger because while I was waiting for the call back (having wised up some this time and chosen the call me back after more than 30 minutes option), I calmed down and coached myself and practiced what I was going to say. He was very helpful and "put in the request" to have someone come out and turn it back on because he was "going to take [my] word for it" that I had actually made the payment even though he had no way to verify it, and it was apparently something they do not do (though I suspect they probably do at least sometimes when people are not raging maniacs). He thought they would be able to get to it that same day, but it didn't actually get turned on again until today at about noon-ish.

So we went without power for 24 hours and I guess I am irresponsible and stupid, or at the very least, very disorganized, but there you go. It had been longer than I thought it had been, I didn't open envelopes I should have, I was complacent. We lived. The temperature had just that day dropped enough that it wasn't unbearably hot (night time was not so good, though, not until about 4 or 5 in the morning). We talked about what we'd do if we didn't have electricity for a longer period of time. We played outside and it was very nice out and the clouds were beautiful at sunset. The park gave us lots of extra light until well after we had gone to bed. It's all good.

So anyway, the girls were playing charades and Saren and Harper were being things like a tornado, a candle flame, a trick-or-treater, and so on. Here's some of how Irina's turns went.

*starts running in place waving her arms around*
me: a runner?
Irina: no
me: a princess?
Irina: no
me: a dancing queen?
Irina: no
me: a tornado?
Irina: no
me: okay, what are you?
Irina: a thing I like.

*starts running in place waving her arms around*
me: a dancing queen?
Irina: no
me: a runner?
Irina: no
me: a turkey?
Irina: no
me: okay, what are you?
Irina: a person

*starts running in place waving her arms around*
me: a person?
Irina: no
me: a dancing queen?
Irina: no
me: a runner?
Irina: no
me: a cat?
Irina: no
me: okay, what are you?
Irina: a shlingla

*starts running in place waving her arms around*
me: a shlingla?
Irina: no
me: a florgleboop?
Irina: You're close!
*we all die laughing*