Day 27: Parrita's Revenge

We had another day that was lounge around worthy but we decided to give our skin a rest after it started to uncover some red tones. I was also peeling from the first time we laid out about a week or so ago. Figured I should let my new skin at least grow back before dying it again.

Maybe Parrita was ticked off that we weren’t taking advantage of yet another lovely day. Or maybe it was because we’ve taken advantage of quite a few lovely days and still aren’t staying. Either way, tonight it decided to give us a big "Up Yours" and shut the power out on us for what we hope is the last time (one more night to go though). Just after sunset we heard the thunder rolling in and could see the shutter of lightning flashes. Since the power seems to go out if someone sneezes too hard, we knew what was coming. So we prepped the flashlight, candles and lighter and within three minutes, we were in the dark.

Since the laptop was fully charged and still stocked with some downloads, we watched an episode of an HBO program that is quickly becoming one of our favorites, Bored to Death (the irony, huh?). A half hour later ate dinner; a buffet of granola bars, plantain chips, nachos and salsa. We followed that up with a game of Rummy and bet on when the power would resume. My guess, 10pm, Mike’s guess, 10am. Fortunately we were both wrong when it came back on three hours later – before 9pm.

I have to admit that I’m proud of my growth here. I remember the first blackout we had like it was yesterday…oh the memories. From the second the lights went out, I had visions of horror movie scenes and freaked myself out enough I forced Mike to drive us to wherever had power (fortunately, we had the rental car back then). We didn’t even have the chance to get to the main road before the power came back. And now, here I was, sitting worriless playing games by candlelight with high hopes and low expectations that the power would resume. Culture shock is a very compelling force. Everything seems to be exaggerated, especially the negative emotions; fear, confusion, unfamiliarity. I’m glad I’m over that phase. The culture doesn’t really shock me anymore, it just slaps me around every now and then.