lights in the darkness

As if two days with no water supply during a major stomach virus weren't bad enough, today (and tomorrow, I'm being told) they cut off our electricity in order to do some repairs on the breaker boxes in the complex.  Because our washing machine needs electricity to run, we went a THIRD DAY with no laundry getting done.  And no, the kids are not finished throwing up.  Not even close.

So we will take turns getting up every two hours through the night to change out laundry (because the electricity and water are always on at night, of course, so the residents that work red-eye shifts can turn on a lamp to read?????)

Oh there I go again.  Please forgive me.  I am in a terrible mood.  I'm just having a VERY hard time with this.  Why, oh why, could they (whoever "they" are) not have waited at least a few days after rendering me waterless to render me powerless?  I am cold (space heaters need electricity), dirty (gas water heater needs electricity to ignite), covered up YET AGAIN with soiled toddler clothes/bedding, and stricken with cabin fever (12 floors is a long way to hike with the kids when the elevator isn't working on account of no electricity).  I couldn't even have my hot tea!  Adding injury to insult, I was just about to pop a batch of bran muffins in the oven this morning when the house went dark and silent with a big "wooommmf."  I retreated to the other room to cry, and continued to cry on and off throughout the miserable, long, cold, dirty day.

But you know what?  At about half past 6 this evening, all the lights poofed on.  We immediately began making provisions for tomorrow.  Charging our portable DVD player so sick kids will have something to do, charging cell phones, throwing in laundry, baking, and checking email.  Daniel took advantage of the working elevator and went out to buy himself a treat (along with some much-needed toilet paper and batteries for tomorrow).

Xiao Fu, who hugged me several times while I cried, eventually told us that her village didn't have electricity until 1994.  Boy, did I feel stupid then.  Not only that, but my husband loves me, my parents and brothers are all alive, my kids are alive, and I am so full of food right now I could burst (I eat a lot on bad days).  So I didn't get my hot tea today.  Woe is me!  Bah.  Sometimes I disgust myself.

I want to be more like my children.  For lunch today, Daniel brought home fajitas from our favorite American restaurant, and Bright, who isn't sick, and loves fajitas, said, "Jesu& always does something to make me happy.  He is the valentine of my life."

And then Bright made this: