Ok I knew it was going to be a bad day, I just didn't know it was going to be a BAD day

So all of you probably want to know about my fabulous black out experience. And for the most part you are going to be stupendously disappointed by the lack of excitement, but, well, here it is anyway.

I started the day by getting lipstick on my white top. I had to change at the last minute and put on a pair of high heels, thinking that it would be a "light" walking day. I looked really cute. Light makeup, everyone complimented my skirt. I started the day feeling, at least, well dressed.

Also the night before I hadn't been feeling well. Jin gave me a ride home and instead of grading, I went inside, stripped off all my clothes, put on my pjs and then went to sleep. I slept until the next morning. No grading. Just sleep. This is probably one of the smartest things I could have done.

I was supposed to stop at the bank and return a movie, but it was running late. I thought I would deposit my check and get money from an ATM later that night.

I had a headache. I took the last of my advil before leaving my apartment. I was too late to buy some more on the way to class.

I don't generally eat at work. Luckily Jin knows this and called on his way in and brought me a salad, some fries, and a coke. My head ache was returning so I took a handful of tylenol from the office first aide kit. I swallowed four and stuck the remaining four in my make up case.

I was giving my afternoon class their final exam. Most of the other students had left. I only had about seven students. I had finished grading my morning exams. My attention was straying. I was wondering how I was going to finish one set of papers and one ste of exams that night. In one day I had manged to grade 80 student papers/exams ( meaning I had 200 left). I was getting burned out.

And then the lights began to dim.

They dimmed to emergency power. Each room still had one light. I told my students to stay put and I ran around the corner to see Casey, another prof. who was giving an exam. A guard came down, told us everything was fine and that the power should be up momentarily. So I went back told my kids to finish their exams by emergency light. They did.

It wasn't until I walked out into the student longue that I realized how serious things were. Another prof. was listening to the news. "It's all the way up to Cananda and as far as Ohio. No subways or buses. And cellphones are totally down." Now I was beginning to panic. A guard came down and told us to evacuate the building. He didn't tell us where to go. Just to go out.

My first thought was to find Jin. I was worried he was trapped in our office, unable to leave. I walked out and I saw stunt Olivier Martinez on his cell phone and not far behind Jin and the gang. I was relieved. At leat I had male protection in case of any riots.

We went to the basement of the Stern building. At this point I was concerned that this might be the result of terrorist activity. Jin and company were mainly concerned with finding a tv in order to hook up their sony playstation. There was a computer center in the basement of stern where I checked the news. Once I discovered it wasn't the result of terrorists, I relaxed. If I had made it through Sept. 11th, I could make it through this.

What I hadn't counted on was on Sept. 11th, we had radios and tvs. We had cold drinks. ( I had my emergency gin under the kitchen sink, which I mixed with sprite.) We had the internet.

We got kicked out of Stern pretty quick. Right after I posted the computer lab monitors told us that the building was going to be shut down in order to conserve on the emergency generators.

It was a total lie. Stern was lit and air conditioned through out the entire blackout. We could have stayed there in the air conditioning. We didn't know where to go. No one told us to go to the library or to Coles. We were just told to go out.

A group of students told us to go to seventh street dorm, that there was food and water there. Jin and Company ( including myself) decided to go. We hung out there waiting for the light to come on. There was bottled water. A student of mine gave me a whole box of crackers and an extra bottle of water. I told her she was getting serious extra credit.

Another student was calling for someone to bring her a muffin from the tray outside. I brought her a muffin. She says to me "You're so cute. What's your name?" Her roommate was another one of my students. I point to her "She knows what it is." My student says "Bad Bunni." "You're Miss Bunni? You're so young. I can't believe it. She's so cute and nice." I thank her and walk back to my chair. It's nice to get compliments in the middle of a catastrophe.

We played cards and Uno on the street.

When it began to get dark, the guards told us we couldn't stay there. The students had heard that Kimmel still had lights and so most of them wanted to stay there. Like an idiot Jin and I decided to go with Olivier Martinez and his roommate to their dorm room.

They claimed their dorm wasn't far away.

This was a total lie.

I have long argued that men and women have different sense of distance. No matter what to a man it isn't that far. "Oh we're only walking to Bolivia, it isn't that far." Riiiiiiiiiight. Cause you're not wearing high heels you bastards. It was indeed at lest a mile and ahalf to this dorm in serious heat wearing high heels.

I have no feelings on the soles of my feet. This is a very dangerous situation. Once I begin to feel pain, it generally means the situation is pretty awful.

So we are walking and walking and walking to this dorm room by the light of car head lights. I know deep down they aren't going to let us into the dorm. And even if they do, what are we going to do? Sit in total darkness in a dorm room. Oh yeah, the fun never ends.

Half way there I begin to feel pain. I touch the sole of my right foot. About half of the right foot was swollen with a blister. There was also a blister on the top of the right toe. If I continued to walk in those shoes, I risked further damage. I took off my shoes. I was walking on the darkened streets of New York with no shoes on.

I finally hobble to the dorm. They won't let us in. What a shock. They also don't know where to tell us to go. I mean, really, there should be a better system of communication for telling people where to go.

So we decided to head back to the library ( which is right next to stern-we should have just stayed there). Jin, to save me the pain of walking, put me up on his shoulders. People loved it. We would walk by and they would cheer and clap. (I guess chivalry isn't really dead after all.) We wondered about how scary we must look coming out of the dark to unsuspecting wanderers. Jin thought we should make monster noises. I thought we should get one of those extra long trenchcoats. It was the high light of the evening.

And I would like to say this moment. Jin is really the best friend ever. He put me up on his shoulders and walked for blocks in the heat with me on his shoulders. Later, while he and the boys went out and had beer, and I nursed a head ache, he got me a coke and advil. He did indeed redeem my faith in humankind.

We got to the library at 10. There was air conditioning and light, bottles of water and yogurt bars. I had two bars and a bottle of water. I could barely walk. My feet were completely blistered. I had a migraine. I had taken the remaining tylenol earlier. Jin went upstairs to look for a tv to play the playstation on. You have to admire the drive. No matter what happened, Jin was focused on playing video games.

They went up and played. The Assless Wonder showed up and gave me a shoulder massage before vanishing with his girlfriend. Olivier Martinez and company wanted chicks. In fact he looked right at me and said "Where are the chicks?" My pride was very hurt. "Uh, what am I?" "Oh you're a professor. I meant, student chicks."

Just. fucking. kill. me.

My feet are a wreck. I have absolutely no money to buy food, never mind liquor, I have a head ache that won't go away, I can't even sleep because all the lights are on in the library ( odd way to conserve energy), and on top of everything else I'm not even a chick.

Wait, I changed my mind, I'm not the one who should die. I should have just killed him.

So the boys go out and find some cute bartender. ( According the Olivier Martinez she was a "real piece of bread." Whatever the hell that means.) So if nothing else I learned from this black out that Olivier is easy on the eyes, and that's about it.

I rested while the boys came in and out. They ate chips and drank beer while I dozed. In the morning, Jin went in search of his car, only to find that it was stolen ( or perhaps towed, but that seemed an unlikely option). We decided to take a bus uptown. The latest radio update had said that electricty would be restored by noon or so. It was at that point seven am. I called my mother to see if she would come and pick me up. Most of the state had energy and I figured hell she came and picked me up after 911, she'll come now.

Well, she wanted me to come to her. I kept trying to explain to her no subways, no trains, no way. The only way out was for to come in. She told me to call her later on her cellphone. To wait and see if power came on.

Jin and company decided to take the bus uptown. It was early, we found seats. I hadn't had anything to eat since the yogurt bars. I didn't bring any with me. I had given the crackers to another person in the company. I didn't want to carry anything.

The trip uptown was quick. My head was throbbing. I walked home on bare feet. A homeless man asking for change on the street took one look at me and said "You ok?" I was touched.

About a half a block from my apartment some postal workers haning out on the corner saw and me said "Why are people walking around with no shoes?" I turned "Because we can't wear our shoes anymore." I held them up "High heels" I explained. "Oh." They exclaimed loudly to be careful. There was broken glass on the corner.

Yes and I would like to take this moment to thank those idiots who broke bottles on the street for no reason. Thanks. No really. The broken glass really added to my evening.

I finally hobbled home and crashed in bed. My cat was very happy to see me and licked my face and curled up by me. I called my mom and cleaned off my feet. I had six blisters. One blister took up half the sole of my right foot. Later I would discover blood in the hall way. It was blood from my feet. Typical of me, I was bleeding and couldn't feel it.

I bandaged my feet and called SER . I told him that when the power went back on we should get the largest martinis we could find. He agreed. After my nap, he said we should hang to kill the time. I took one of the coldest showers in history ( I will NEVER join one of those polar bear ice swimming clubs-damn sickos) and I put on my make up and went over.

I was starving at this point. Cursing my lack of money and no food in the fridge. I was actually eating cough drops to have something in my stomach.

Because only an idiot like myself would bother to put on make up in the middle of such a situation.

So SER and I hung out waiting for the power to come back on. We were both dizzy and sweating in his apartment talking about how it would be ok if only we had music or food or liquor or money. And then we heard a shout from the street. We look and THERE WAS POWER.

I was so damn happy, I hugged SER. Twice.

We went and got cash and then pizza. Oh pizza, how I love it.

My headache finally went away. In celebration SER and I bought Corona and listened to music. With so little food in my system, I had a beer and half and fell asleep ( oh the shame). It was a calming evening.

So I'm totally behind on grading. TOTALLY BEHIND. There is absolutely no way that I'm getting it done on time.

So there you have it people, arguably the lamest of the stories out there. No closing the bar, no blackout hook up, no snarfing ben and jerry's ice cream out of my freezer before it melted.

Nope.

On the other hand, when I could finally check my mobile messages this afternoon I found quite a few people had called to make sure I was ok ( including Jin) and even Mr Attacked by a Moose himself, Baked Alaska. Yep he called just to see if I was ok. Genius however failed to leave his phone number or any other contact information ( I only have his return address from his letter).

Not surprisingly, Vampire Hunter D, the Beast, Bishop, and John Yule have yet to be heard from.

Oh yeah, feel the love, people, feel the love.