This has been a week.

I came home tonight from a day babysitting my one year old niece in DC to find the lights in my house on, US Open on the (working) TV, cold wine in the (working) fridge, and best of all, an announcement on my (working, typing that again and again doesn't make it any less exciting) laptop that the college is closed all day tomorrow because it still doesn't have power.

And my God I feel like it's the first time I've breathed properly in a week. It's like someone hooked me up to oxygen. Everything cleared. Life was vivid and beautiful and I just can't stop smiling, because there is nothing I needed more than to have tomorrow off instead of being in class from 7am until 4pm.

Because this has been a week. I mean honestly. I think it's been a week for all of us. I honestly cannot wrap my head around the fact that the last week was only seven days long. Because holy crap, from last Monday to this Monday, this ALL happened:

-I went with my best friend who I have been best friends with since we were wearing stirrup leggings to her bridal portrait and saw her in her gorgeous wedding dress looking absolutely beautiful. And along with that came the realization that holy crap, the girl I've known since the days of stirrup leggings is getting MARRIED!

-I had my first week of real, legit nursing classes, which was intense to say the least. Basically most of it was a blur, but I did pick up on the fact that I will be spending most of the next two and a half years with dummies that breathe, sweat, foam at the mouth, die, and cost more than any car of mine ever will.

-I started my Microbiology class, which I am fairly convinced will turn me from the kind of person who scoffs at germaphobes to the type of person who can't stop going on and on about all of the tiny microorganisms all around and how important it is not to let them win and to have CONSTANT VIGILANCE.

-I experienced an earthquake, in CENTRAL VIRGINIA, a sensation I didn't like. Nope. I hated it. Pretty much confirmed in the opinion that earthquakes are the worst.

-I found out that coffee is not allowed in my 7am-12pm clinical. This may not seem momentous to anyone else, but let me repeat, no COFFEE in the class that starts at 7 in the morning. Those dummies do not know what they are in for (yes I know that sentence ends with a preposition which makes me the worst, but this has been a long week people!)

-I went on a date (squee!) for the first time in well, it's better not to say exactly how long. Which means I did real eye makeup for the first time in like, months.

-I dealt with the death and rebirth of my iMac's power cord. Accordingly I dealt with the insane policies of the Apple store which according to the guy who works there "are just like at a doctor's office." Because Apple doesn't have enough of a God complex already without the whole "healing" metaphor.

-I interviewed a bunch of people and worked furiously to meet my September 1st deadline, until all hell broke loose and my dream of finishing my section early dissolved. I was reminded for as much as I can complain about "work" and deadlines, the awesome men and women I meet and get to talk to in Richmond every month are the absolute best part of the job.

-I lived without power for 2+ days. And my God does going more than 48 hours without power make that first re-powered glow of a lightbulb and hum of a refrigerator things of near spiritual transcendence.

-I rode out Hurricane Irene along with a whole heck of a lot of people on the East Coast. I sat on my back porch (strangely a drier and better lit place than my bedroom) most of Saturday and watched the fury of Mother Nature blow past. And the thing you notice most is the noise. The constant wind and roaring gusts and torrents of rain of course, but all those other sounds too- almost continuous sirens, the pop of transformers blowing, the tell tale crack of a branch falling or the even more tell-tale boom of a tree hitting dirt. All that noise made the silence that finally arrived early Sunday morning all the more eerie. I listened to the radio by candlelight. I literally got dressed in the dark (and looked it as a result). I walked around the Fan and tried to control my jealous rage whenever I saw working porch lights. I went to Starbucks with the rest of the universe Sunday morning in search of caffeine and outlets  and watched as the Fan turned into a bustling, neighborly place, where people talked with strangers and shared war stories.

-I babysat for my one year old niece who is probably my favorite person on the planet, and who is also probably the most exhausting person on the planet. We went to the zoo (I was more excited about this than her) and saw orangutans and meerkats and zebras and elephants (most of the time I was shouting and pointing and my niece was just like, whatever, elephant schmelephant, one year olds are so over it all). We hung out. We read. I played the Elmo duck video on my ipod for her about 20 times in a row.

So yeah, it was a week. Which is why there are no words to express how grateful that tomorrow I get a day to get my head together, to sleep and to luxuriate in electronics. I sincerely hope anyone reading gets a similar chance to regroup, because I think anyone in this area is at this point a jagged, jangly bunch of nerves who sees a shelf of D batteries and feels the obsessive need to buy all of them.