The power went out at work today. Everyone panicked and decided to buy coffee. They seemed more concerned with whether or not we could still make their drinks than the fact that the hospital just lost power. Really nice.
But I love power outages. They provide an instant sense of adventure. Even mundane tasks are made slightly daring and glamorous by the absence of electricity.
Ow. I was just making some ramen in the microwave (as I've been forced to move back to the dorms early and lack a kitchen) and I went to reach for the bowl. I burned my finger, and when I jerked my hand back from the offending vessel, my hand scraped against the plastic prong of the microwave door. So now the back of my hand has this wicked scrape on it. It's bleeding quite profusely. Gross. It's soaking through the band-aid. Ewww.
But maybe it'll scar. That'd be cool.
I like the idea of scars. Scars and bruises. Even if they were gained from doing something dumb, there's something inherently badass about receiving injuries, especially in today's compulsively safe world (even the woodchips of playgrounds have been replaced by soft scraps of recycled rubber tires, which is, in my mind, contemptible). It hearkens to a time when we didn't obsess over killing bacteria, but just concentrated on keeping all our limbs intact.
Like that one time, camping up in the Boundary Waters, when I was trying to keep a fire (built from damp wood) going so we could cook a fish, and managed to scrape the hell out of my arm as I added logs. It was like proof of effort and hard work, evidence of a pragmatic fearlessness.
Even though, you know, injuring myself on a microwave while making cheap noodles isn't really the same thing at all. It's only evidence of lazy sedentariness. I'll just say I was attacked by a coyote or something.
Also, there is a grasshopper clinging to the outside of the screen in my window. I'm nine floors up. I'm perplexed, impressed, and a little weirded out.
2 comments:
Scars are neat, and that grasshopper is indeed impressive. I got glasses yesterday! I mean, they're not here yet, but I picked out frames. I'll put pics on facebook when I get them. I also bought a little black dress. It's really sophisticated, though. I love it. :-)
Becky
Scars kick ass. Right now I´m missing part of the tip of one finger and the side of my foot from scraping them on rocks in a stream I jumped into by the hot springs in the high Amazon basin this weekend. Why´s the power out?
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