Unplugged

... that's what we were today at work. Not by choice mind you, but that's what happened. Jeff called me last night to say that the power at school was out, had been all day, and there wasn't much hope of getting it restored by morning. He said mostly he was calling to warn me to bundle up because we wouldn't have any heat in the office. Great.

I came in this morning fully expecting it to be just an awful day. They were able to restore lights to all of the classrooms and the office, so that was a pleasant surprise! I teased our contractors on the way up the front stairs reminding them how much I hate to be without the little heater under my desk, so imagine my surprise when I walked in and the office was actually quite toasty. Apparently, the offices did have heat - YAHOO! - but none of the classrooms did (sorry, guys). However, we were still unplugged as we had no technology. No phones. No bells. No clocks. No computers. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

At first, I thought it would be impossible to come up with enough work to keep me busy throughout the day. Boy, was I ever wrong about that! Just imagine: an entire day without phone calls and email. It's pure bliss! Absolutely no interruptions! I finally had time to clean out, re-organize and label all of the drawers in the office. Something that, since our move in August, I just hadn't found the time to do. I organized paperwork and caught up on a few things that were still outstanding. I organized supplies. I chatted with everyone who came in the office - a nice treat and true rarity. At lunchtime I decided to continue the uplugged trend: instead of driving, I walked to the used book store and credit union. I turned in books for credit and I deposited two checks. While walking back to school, I noticed that the local frozen yogurt shop had closed (bummer ... I'll really be missing that in May and June when it starts to get really hot before school is out.). I came back in to the office feeling quite accomplished - and very refreshed!

In short, I had a wonderful, extremely productive day. Something I would never have dreamed when I got that phone call late last night about the power being out. What a great reminder to enjoy that delicious lemonade when we it looks like we just have a pile of lemons.