Yay! The power's out!

On the 16th, around 9:45, I was vacuuming up on the fourth floor of Gillette. Suddenly, the vacuum shut off. And all the lights went off too. It was a power outage, the first time that ever happened while I was at Houghton. It was new and exciting.

There were emergency lights in the dorm halls and stairwells, which was really good. I had been planning to meet people in the campus center at 10, so I put the vacuum away (fortunately I had been almost done) and headed out. All the outside lights were off too, of course, and I could see all the stars. It was amazing. I didn't know you could see that many stars. It was beautiful.

I found my friends in the campus center, and we hung out there some and walked around outside more. People were running around all over the place, screaming and yelling. Someone was setting off illegal fireworks, and I heard that someone drove a car on the sidewalk. People also climbed on the roofs of buildings, and the next day graffiti was found in several different places. That really annoys me, because most people were just enjoying the novelty of the power being out and admiring the stars, but some people thought, "Oh, the power's out, it's a great time to do bad things!" Which is stupid.

Anyway, it was an adventure. The Student Life office handed out glow sticks, as if they'd been prepared for this. The lights came back on a little after 11. Apparently the power had been out in several towns in the area, and I still don't know why. But I really didn't mind at all; it was fun and different.