Here's how the weekend was SUPPOSED to got down.
It needed to be low key. We wanted to hang out at our neighborhood pool most of the weekend and order pizza and put the kids to bed early and watch the Tour de France. We have a busy couple of weeks coming up that slide us straight into the madness that is the beginning of the school year and wanted a little reprieve before it all.
Here's how the weekend ACTUALLY went down.
We ended up hanging out with friends late Friday night, after hanging out with friends at a pool party late Thursday night. There was a little bit of rain and thunder Friday evening, but nothing prepared us for the craziness of that night/early morning. At 3, John and I awoke to thunder claps and lightening that seemed more strobe light due to frequency. It sounded like small objects were being hurled at our home. John got up to go to the bathroom, and the power went out while he was in there.
On Saturday morning, my phone started pinging with messages from friends who were also without power. Upon checking the outage map (something I got really good at during our extended power outage circa Christmas 2012), I could see that LOTS of people were in the same boat. Thankfully, John's parents had power, as did some of our friends. We split the day/night between family and friends, made the best of it and saved our food. All in all, we fared very well, and our power came back on late last night.
But, we did not come out unscathed. We are exhausted - as are our children. No one got as much rest as would be recommended ... hoped for ... desired. Our hopes had been so high and all got dashed. Instead, we got to shuffle stuff from fridge to fridge and clean up the debris in our yard. (to be fair, John did most of both of those things) We enjoyed our time with friends and family, but we are emerging more tired from it all.
For better and for worse, now anything like this happens to us, I am simultaneously so grateful and so guilty feeling about how many resources we have. Guilty isn't really the right word, because I do understand that we are fortunate to have what we have, and guilt helps no one. But, I am struck with how unfair life is, and how these hard events bring that even more to light.
We have many places to land and can afford to eat out and even as we are tired, I know we will eventually recover (i think? i hope?). I'm always reminded that when crises happen to other subsets of the population, it can be devastating. They don't have people to take them in or extra cash for food. They are stuck, and it sucks all of their energy and more to just struggle through to get back to the norm where they were already struggling.
This always weighs on me to some extent, because I feel that we have been gifted so much in regards to relationships and resources. I want to be grateful and hold them all with an open hand, and I want surprise storms to lead me towards gratitude instead of complaints and a bad attitude. Because, we were inconvenienced and worn out over the 19 hours we spent without power in the heat of the summer, but at the end of the day, we were not in any way devastated by our experience. And for that, I am beyond grateful. And hoping for more sleep for everyone tonight.
