On Darkness as Helplessness

The electricity is out in my apartment. It's completely dark.

I would be mad, be cursing at the electric company, but the situation was entirely avoidable, had I only called the company earlier to put the electricity into my name. Granted, I called on Monday, which was the day our lease started, and they said that the electricity would start in my name tomorrow. I knew that today was the last day that it would be in the name of the previous tenant, so since the woman on the phone at the electric company didn't say anything at the time, I just assumed that they wouldn't turn the electricity off today just to turn it back on tomorrow. That would be a waste of time and money, right? What company could be so inefficient?

But guess what! That's exactly what they're doing! Tonight, no electricity. Tomorrow, it comes back! Which is good, but it also probably means that they can charge us for the visit to turn it back on. Not to mention the inconvenience of holding us without electricity for one day. Sons of bitches. And since it takes three days to turn on electricity (Why? What about this could possible take three days? I drove across the fucking country in three days! Is their service man in Boston right now, and can't come flip the fucking switch until he drives here? What the fuck?), there is nothing that I can do to get the electricity turned on tonight, according to the nice customer service lady I talked to on the phone today. She said that since I called Monday, our electricity was coming on tomorrow, while the previous tenant's electricity was turned off today, as scheduled. So I asked her when tomorrow the electricity would be turned on, and she said, "Some time during the day." Well, yes. So I asked if I could request that it be early in the day. She said "No, but hopefully it will be turned on soon." I said "Yes! Yes, hopefully it will!" Then I thanked her sincerely and hung up the phone.

I can't help but feel responsible, even though this wasn't really my fault. Still, I am forcing two other people to live in a second floor apartment in Houston without air conditioning or light for one night. We stored our perishable food in our neighbors' refrigerator, so that's not a problem. It's just an unnecessary hassle.

On the brighter side, it seems to be cooling off nicely outside as it gets dark, so maybe the apartment won't be completely unbearable, and I might get some sleep. Also, today was a good day as far as feeling more settled and at home. Lilly arrived, my other housemate, and it feels better to have all three living in the house. We still lack a lot of necessary furniture, but we can fix that soon. We also met our downstairs neighbors (in whose fridge our milk is currently not going sour) and they are quite nice and seem like cool guys. We're even going to split wireless internet six ways, which is excellent, if we can get it working. And I acquired a studio key yesterday and practiced there for the first time today, which strangely made me feel more like I belonged than practicing in the practice rooms. I hope that, as the next couple of weeks go on, I will get more into the routine, start teaching, and generally fall into the idea that Houston is home and the right place for me at this time.

Though I'm not sure how long it will be until I stop missing Oberlin.