When we got a notice in the mail that there'd be a planned power outage for repair work on Sunday from 12-4am, it didn't strike me as a particularly terrible idea. It made sense, I guess, that they'd cut the power overnight while everyone should be happily asleep. We probably wouldn't even notice!
Right on schedule, the power went out at precisely midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning, causing our burglar alarm to shriek out in protest because BURGLARZ R CUTTIN TEH POWER OMG. Before my heart rate could go back to normal I heard the cool, blessed breeze of the air conditionering slow down and die. Our ceiling fan made a few halfhearted circles before dragging to a halt. The other fan we use for white noise was conspicuously silent. By 12:02 I was covered in a sheen of sweat and muttering the entire trio of unforgivable curses in BGE's direction for not doing this during the goddamn DAY, when people could at least leave the house and go somwehere with air conditioning.
Opening the windows was quickly ruled out because the low overnight was in the high seventies. With humidity, it felt somwhere in the 80s. And to someone seven months pregnant, it felt about five degrees short of molten lava. I packed up my pillows and my book and moved to the couch on the first floor, where it's about ten degrees cooler, and I used my newly acquired booklight to read quite happily. It was cool enough and I had seven different pillows positioned strategically and I wasn't even that upset about being woken up.
That is, until the noise started. The problem with the nice, cool first floor is that it's at street level. The couch is probably ten feet from the sidewalk, and without my beloved fan for white noise I was forced to listen to every drunken conversation, every dog barking, every bird chirping. (Aren't birds supposed to sleep at night? Because our birds CHIRP ALL NIGHT.)
Still, I was OK. I was really tired from being at yoga training all day and I was confident I'd fall asleep quickly despite the guy yelling "what the fuck, man, what the fuck!" right outside the window. I briefly wondered if I should get up and see what was going on, but decided against it because 1) getting off the couch is no easy feat nowadays, and 2) I don't have any maternity pajamas. And it was really hot. So what I'm saying is, I wasn't exactly appropriately attired to be peeking out a window three inches away from a drunk yelling guy. So I gave him a little huff of indignation and continued reading my book.
Then I heard Joel talking on the phone upstairs. While I'd been feeling annoyed at this guy for not keeping his damn voice down while I was busy trying not sweat to death, Joel had looked out the third story window to see him being mugged and beaten unconscious. So! The police and ambulance were called, Joel went outside to help the guy (who had since regained consciousness and was sitting across the street on our neighbor's stoop). After about fifteen minutes the guy insisted he was OK and stumbled off. The police and ambulance finally arrived, Joel showed them where the guy was (unsurprisingly, he hadn't made it very far down the block). The guy declined medical attention and the police and ambulance left. It was all very exciting. I mean that sarcastically, which is how I know it's time to get the hell out of this city. (Also exciting? After all this happened, someone came along and shotgunned two beers and left them in our plant. Party at our house on a Saturday night!)
By this time it was 2:30am. Joel returned upstairs, I retired back to my couch. And then Henry the Cat started howling and running around like a maniac on the second floor. Thanks to the historic 100-year-old wood floors that were such a nice selling point when we bought this house, it sounded like a rabid pack of wild hyenas taking down a zebra instead of an 11-lb house cat batting around his green felt mouse. The power was still off and I imagined that I could actually feel my couch-refuge getting hotter by the second.
Still! I was confident everything was going to be OK! I read some more and eventually passed out around 4am, book in hand... only to be woken up by the beeping of every elecrical appliance in the kitchen and the sweet, sweet sound of the air conditioning sputtering to life two hours later (that would be two hours LATE, BGE, and don't think I didn't notice). I waddled my aching back upstairs and returned to the bed, giving my white noise fan a hug and a kiss on the way.
And then two hours after THAT, the alarm went off saying it was time for me to wake up and go back to yoga teacher training.
It was a bad night of sleep, is what I am saying. And you know what made it worse? Realizing that in 10 more weeks, this is going to be the norm.
Ok but more importantly, what book are you reading? ;)
I kid, I kid. But seriously though, you're looking adorable in that dress!
Posted by: Liz | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 03:25 PM
Oh goodness, that is craptacular to a spectacular degree. The good news is that at least you'll have AC when le bebe comes, right? (RIGHT? BGE?!)
xox
Posted by: heidikins | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 04:06 PM
Liz - the book is somewhat embarassing: The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory. It's not exactly high literature, but it's *just* entertaining enough to keep me reading and at the same time boring enough to put me quickly to sleep. Sadly, I finished it last night.
Posted by: Operation Pink Herring | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 04:12 PM
As long as your AC continues to work, it will not be nearly as bad as that night sounds.
Also, I'm guessing your baby won't be born shrieking obscenities. But, you never know! Could be a child prodigy.
Posted by: Janssen | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 10:31 PM
10 weeks! Holy crap. At least you will love your little sleep-depriver!
Posted by: RA | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:19 AM
You look great!
I'm not in bmore, so not as intense heat, but with my small closet sublet room in a no-AC house, I find a constant mouth-hook-up to a Fla*Vor*Ice helpful in combating the heat. In fact, time for a new tube right now!
Posted by: beth | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 06:13 PM
I don't know dude...I'd rather be up all night with an air-conditioned newborn.
Posted by: Erika | Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:35 AM
I have that same striped shirt in orange! Love it.
I agree with everyone else -- as long as Sir Fetus doesn't somehow break the a/c, it'll hopefully be better than this night was.
Posted by: Audrey | Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 09:24 AM