A thread on my day, highlighting humanity & what a "fun" adventure my life can be:
I'm on a focus group Zoom about a project at 10:30am when the power suddenly cuts off. I log on to the Zoom via phone & finish the call. 1/

At 11am, I leave my "office" (i.e. bedroom) to investigate the situation. [Note: I am proud bc I scheduled 11-12 for a lunch break before the webinar I am giving] My husband has checked our fuses, in & outside of the house & called the utilities company. Nothing. 2/

They say, "We'll send someone out but there are no outages in your area." I post to our community Facebook page. There's no sign of outages there either. My husband goes back to the electrical box & notices a sign that our electricity has been terminated. 3/

We put 2 & 2 together to realize that our neighbors who have just sold their house must have terminated their service & the electric company cut off our power instead. I am livid. My husband, the calmer one, calls the utilities company back. 4/

It takes them 10 minutes of hold/wait time to confirm our account and say, "Our bad. We'll send someone out right away. It could take a couple of hours though." It is now 11:20. I now begin to freak out. 5/

Bc of social distancing, I do not yet have an office on my new campus. I am also technically not allowed to work on campus at my old office. I text my former department chair (because I at least have keys to that office). 6/

She can only give me permission to be on campus for a few minutes. I have to e-mail my former dean or associate dean, which I do, but they both are on "end of fiscal year use-it-or-lose-it vacation." Now I am really freaking out. 7/

I call my friend & colleague, tell her its an emergency, give her the short version & she says to come to her place. In the meantime, my former dean also gives me the okay to come to campus, but I have to fill out a survey, there's no HVAC & I'm already on the road. 8/

It's now 11:35. I jump on the freeway to my friend's place & arrive just after noon (webinar goes live at 12:30). She offers her computer, but I literally can't remember my multiple (autosaved) passwords so I use my own (but forget to plug it in). 9/

Go live, give & finish the webinar with 19% battery remaining. My back is drenched in sweat from stress & wearing a blazer. About 11 minutes into the webinar, my husband texts me that the power is back on. I have not eaten. My friend brings me a plate of food. 10/

Then the rest of life happens, a few hours behind schedule. This perhaps is not so interesting except that I learned: 1) Always schedule a lunch break; 2) my community is CLUTCH. I literally couldn't have done this without them; 3) I probably need a vacation /end