Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A note on the name...

I changed things up a little.
Al, abroad ---> Al, a broad

Why?
I think referring to myself as "a broad" is funny, even though "broad" is technically a derogatory word for a woman.  I am taking it and owning it.  Kind of.
"Abroad" means many things, including just being away from home, but now the play on words is still there in a different way.
Why not?

There goes the sun...

So this post was supposed to be "Here Comes the Sun," but then the whole country decided to freeze over...
(Bro. Dave -- you're totally right; there are so many things to talk about any place in the world!)

The most wonderful thing about living in Louisiana is living in Louisiana in January.  Last week we had temperatures in the 70s (21C).  I spent several days outside, at different parks, jogging and walking Zeus.
It's easy to take nice weather for granted.  Our lives are busy; my life, as a grad student, is full of papers to write and books to write and classes to plan.  However, after spending last winter with less sunlight than I can ever remember experiencing in my entire life, sunny, warm temperatures in January should not be ignored.  It should be celebrated, and how better to celebrate than a Thursday jog along the lake front with a Zeus?

Anyway, we continued to celebrate the beautiful weather on Friday.  A few friends and I enjoyed a delicious meal on the patio of a local bar.  Then, Zeus, Mila and I sat in my friend Danielle's backyard and watched Zeus play with his friends, Clementine and Winston.  They enjoyed the sun too.
The best thing about all of this was the sunburn I got on my face and neck.  I'm not even kidding!  It's already faded away, but I think a person in the northern hemisphere should consider herself luck if she can get a sunburn in January.

Now, however, the cold weather has struck.  This once sunny city will hit low temperatures of 29F (-2C) tonight.  In honor of the cold weather, I blew a fuse in the living room, knocking out any chance of heating the front part of the house, as well as shutting down the internet.  Because I did not think that was enough trouble, I managed to plug a heater into a bathroom socket (to try and get just a tiny bit of heat in the rest of the house) and create a small explosion.  The heater shot sparks at me and Lauren (who was trimming my hair) and surged all of the outlets in Kelly's room.
Long story short, we don't have the circuit breaker box in our part of the house.  Also, our 80-year-old landlords, The Johnsons, are out of town for the next two weeks.  
I had to call a friend to have her email their grandson (Dr. Blevins, also head of the English department, professor of one of the classes I'm taking, and for all intents and purposes my boss) to let him know we were cold.  He ended up coming by, getting things fixed up (and showing us the stupid circuit box on the side of the house, i.e. totally accessibly by us), and checking out a few other minor maintenance matters.  It was only slightly embarassing and ended up taking care of some issues we've been having for months.

Anywho, there went the sun...

Kevin and I are flying to DC tomorrow -- that is if none of our flights are cancelled!  It will be freezing there too, so everyone should enjoy this nice sunny music video.
They like sitting in the sun with animals as much as me!