There was a lot of ice and stuff

We hit a rough, or should I say, icy patch the last few days that brought about several realizations/revolutions for Wade and I. Our power went out at midnight on Monday night. It came back on briefly and then was out again at 3 am and stayed out until 5:30 this morning. We stayed home as long as we could on Tuesday morning, but after a night of the three of us (plus two cats) freezing under our blankets, it wasn't long before we packed up our things and headed to Gigi and Grandpa's house. I spent the day there with Henry while Wade worked. I had taken the day off to try to salvage my final exam grade. Henry was sick over the weekend and our last exam was last Thursday so finding the time to actually study was nearly impossible. Now, I knew that without electricity there was no way I could study at my house and so I gave up on studying and played with Henry hoping that our electricity would be on Tuesday evening and I could stay up late studying. It wasn't on Tuesday evening so we settled on staying the night at my parents house. This would be Henry's first night not sleeping in his own bed. Wade and I knew it wouldn't go well, and it didn't. He was confused. He kept saying "Henry go home. Henry go night-night in Henry's own bed." He wouldn't lay down on his own, so I went to bed with him at 8:00 pm. He tossed and turned most of the night. When our neighbors called at 5:30 to tell us that our outside light turned on Wade was so excited I thought he might just run home (which would be a very long and cold run from my parents house). He left at about 6:00 am and Henry and I got up a few minutes later. I am at work now, having spent the day responding to emails from my "vacation" day yesterday and not really getting any studying done despite my stack of notes sitting on my desk just to my right, and I have almost completely come to terms with the fact that I am going to go into my final exam tomorrow not knowing much of anything from the semester. Not remembering the general information we learned for exam 1 or much of the far more specific information that I didn't learn for the exam I just took last week or anything else in between. I think the worst part about tomorrow will be looking over those test questions and feeling like I have a vague idea of what the answer is but not knowing enough to be certain. I don't want to get a D. I am tired of worrying about it. I feel like there wasn't much I could have done differently.

I think I could write a book about things that go wrong before final exams. My freshman year I wrecked on my way to my Psychology final. I leaned over to grab my #2 pencil that slid behind the seat and slammed into a tree. Years later a girl ran into the electrical post just outside of our house with her car and broke the post in half. They had to turn off our electricity to put in a new post. I studied my note cards by candlelight that night. There have been other incidents too...sickness, broken bones, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't think of now because my brain is tired and I am sleep deprived.

But I can't complain too much. A grade is just a grade, a class is just a class. And this experience has brought about some important insights that needed to come up. As Wade and I drove away from our dark house on Tuesday night I thought about all the people that have been displaced from their homes recently because of hurricanes and tsunamis. There is a feeling of helplessness unlike any other when you call a service to find out what is happening with your home only to get an automated service with a very broad explanation and no time frame for when you can expect your life to be "normal" again. Many people who lived through Katrina are still dealing with that automated service and coping with that hopeless feeling. I had it for 28 hours, I can't imagine how they must feel right now. In addition to that....what's the saying??? "Don't know what you got till it's gone" Man, that is the truth. When Wade called to tell me that he was watching Ricky Ticky Tavy with Henry on the sofa with the Christmas lights on in our warm house I felt better than I have in months. So I guess I can thank the ice for that. I can also thank my parents for putting up with us for 28 hours, we are not easy house guests and they were unbelievably generous.

So, I suppose I'll take my bad grade for those insights. It seems like a fair trade.