Let There be Light (and Internet)

Although the fires are mostly contained (and hopefully stay that way), Santa Barbarans have been coping with fire-related blackouts for the past week. I have sat through power outages and/or internet outages almost every single day for the past week at both home or work. Today, though, was the first day that the lights went off at work; it was pretty eerie.

In addition to remembering how reliant we are on electricity and the internet, SB'ers have coped in different ways:

• College kids in IV party like its the end of the world, as even documented the city paper. My favorite was how they hang flashlights from the ceiling to play beer pong.
  
• One of the lawyers, not able to work on anything on his computer, cleaned his office and threw away boxes of old files.
• I am pretty sure another lawyer left to go golfing in Los Angeles.
  
• The paralegals/assistants wanted to hit the bar for Bloody Mary's until they realize that businesses will probably be closed because of the power outage as well.
• The business on our floor created a mess by buying and installing their own generator but while it was being installed . . . yes, the power went out.
  
• As for me, I went into emergency prepardness mode by stealing a big Mag flashlight from home and buying candles and matches at CVS. Basically, I need light to edit all these law review articles I have to get done by Saturday.
  

I swear, this is karma for me gloating about how perfect it was in Santa Barbara compared to everywhere else. I am praying that the power and air conditioning do not go out tomorrow when the heatwave and triple digits hit.