social pressure to be cold? well i never...

i was a barista once.  what a phenomenal time in my life.  things are carefree behind that countertop.  the whole place is just full of an ambiance of relaxed good vibrations encouraged by the cheerful music that is always playing.  people are generally happy in cafes as the eminent moment of having a caffeine fix approaches.  it's glorious.  glorious, i say.

what's more, there is literally SO little that a barista has to do.  you seriously have one job.  make coffee.  make it reasonably well, but still - just make it.  make a lattee, make a cappucino, pour up a cup of joe from a vat of coffee that is already prepared.  whatever it is, the bottom line is: fill cup with caffeine, give caffeine to consumer for monies.  one job!  

one time the city of st. john's turned off the water up on kenmount road when i was working at starbucks.  we tried in vain to make enough coffee to last the scheduled time but alas, we didn't make enough.  some missus came in looking for her fix and, i'm not sure if she was having a bad day or if she actually had a serious caffeine problem, but she literally lost her mind when we had to tell her, in overly perky, sing-song voices, that there was no coffee.  at the time i was all blah blah blah what a bitch!  but in retrospect, i sort of get it.  we had one job to do, and we dropped the ball. she doesn't care about the water!  extraneous circumstances be damned, she needs some caffeine goddammit!  we had one job and we dropped the ball.  ONE JOB.  i'm sorry, mystery caffeine bitch, i'm sorry.

this weekend, as many who bother reading this know, was the Blackout Blizzard 2014.  we were in the dark for ages!  most of the island didn't have power and it was cold and it was dark and it was scary.  do you know how weird it is being in a city that has no lights on at night time?  it is actually completely terrifying.  it seems just like the apocalypse, especially because people start to panic, all lining up at the gas station down the street and some people even STOLE OTHER PEOPLE'S GENERATORS.  some people's humanity literally vanished in sheer moments of not being able to actually watch the walking dead on netflix, so they went out into the world and acted like they were characters on the show.  for anyone who has ever gotten me on the topic of the walking dead or any other post-apocalyptic themed book or movie, you'll know i am actually obsessed with what people will do when threatened with the end of the world.  for me, the blackout blizzard 2014 was a strange combination of (a) being super hyped up because our GENERATOR WAS STOLEN and it served as a real-life example of said lack of humanity and (b) being generally terrified while driving in the dark and (c) just being really cold until we figured out how to turn on the propane fireplace.

but i digress.  this blog isn't about the blackout and the vitiation of humanity, as exemplified by the THEFT OF OUR GENERATOR, but rather is about the cold leading UP to the Blackout Blizzard 2014.  in actuality, i sort of loved the blackout.  i hung out with my best friend and her bf and we got drunk off expensive wine that we stole from his dad (another example of theft...but i tend to think more understandable) and played a million games of asshole and listened to VOCM for an embarrassingly long time...#vocmforever #voiceofthecommonman #askmeaboutwhenmylittlesistercalledopenline #weclappedfortimpower

the blackout was amazing.

no, this blog is about the events leading up to the Blackout Blizzard 2014.  it's about how, when it became really cold out, the b'ys in charge of heat and light here in my fine province didn't know WTF to do.  it was too cold!  and everyone was turning up the heat!  so, because they didn't know what to do, they started with the rolling blackouts.  people were annoyed about that and i guess rightly so.  but with that said, i mean, what are ya gonna do.  everyone takes a turn.  i just left when my power went out.

no, my issue is this: in addition to these jesus rolling blackouts, i was told to conserve my power as if the fact that the b'ys don't know how to deal with it being cold out during winter was my fault.  i was told to turn off my christmas lights and avoid doing laundry and endeavour to not use a dishwasher and to just generally conserve energy.  um.  you guys.  i need clothes.  and i need a shower.  i'm sorry, i just need these things.  

what the hell!  don't peer pressure me into being cold!  i am co-dependent enough without someone telling me that it is at least partly my fault that these GD rolling blackouts are happening.  this is not my fault!  this is YOUR guys' fault!  you had ONE job to do!  ONE!  and now you want to socially shame and peer pressure me into sitting in my house with the heat on 12 when it is -15 outside?  i get it that i can wrap up in blankets and wear my very stylish white knit headband with a flower on the right side while i watch Nip/Tuck in bulk with only the glow from my laptop screen lighting the room, but this is not the point!  don't you dare put that kinda pressure on me.  

i want to reiterate, i'm not mad about the blackouts - neither the rolling nor the extended blackouts.  i'm not overly focussed on power outages at the expense of the obvious danger that i'm sure all the power crews who had to fix the issues were exposed to.  you need to take some time to fix it all up?  fine!  go ahead!  i'm not complaining about any of that!  but really.  guys.  you had one job.  i pay you monies, and you give me heat.  don't scold me when i use the very product that i buy from you.  peer pressure isn't welcome in elementary schools and it isn't welcome here.  #DarkNL indeed.