power outage

the power went out today at work. i loved it. we sat around talking instead of staring at our computers. a few people were tweeting on their smart phones, or calling the cable company to answer concerns readers were posting on facebook about when their cable would be back. others were smoking, some disappeared.

i was talking to a columnist who has worked at the newspaper since 1968. he has stacks of yellowed newspapers around his desk and said some he saves for story ideas, but others are from big events like the race riots in 1969 and others from the evolution/creation debate that was publicized worldwide a few years ago. my mouth hung open thinking about all the news he has covered and watched unfold in that time span.

my view of the past - and i'm talking even before i existed. before i became a possibility, ha. have you watched "we bought a zoo" yet? it's cute. i love the part where he reenacts for his kids how he first saw/met their mom and says, "that was a big moment! that was the moment you two became a possibility!"

but anyway my view of the past is very nostalgic and filling with longing - i think living before modern technology forced it's way into everything would have been a simpler time to live, and more enjoyable. like the era where there was enough technology for running water and electric, but before computerized everything. that sounds like the perfect time to my mind.

in asking him questions i was a little disappointed by his answers, even though i should have been pleased. writers back then weren't any better, he said. no, their vocabularies weren't better either, but their grammar was. and chelsea, you're doing a wonderful job. we don't tell people that around here enough.

well. that wasn't what i was expecting at all. surprise.