I have to say, 2008 is shaping up to be an odd year :P After surviving my first week of school and extra hours at work (due to a State Inspector), I was really looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I decided to sleep in so I set my alarm for a blissful nine o'clock wake up. After falling asleep to my usual composer of choice, Giovanni Gabrielli, I was abruptly awoken by the sound of my dog barking and horrid country music. I rolled out of bed so fast that I almost choked myself to death on my earphone cord. Then my mother came and bang on my door, yelling "It's eleven, get out of bed!" To my shock, my alarm had not awoken me at the preordained time. "What happened?!" I exclaimed in amazement when I walked into the kitchen 30 minutes later and fully dressed. "Someone crashed into the power poll again." my father answered as he read the morning paper scouring the obituary section to see who got the most "cases" for the week. "The guy completely cut the poll in half too. Destroyed his truck as well as another car when the poll came crashing down. They said they should have power back by seven tonight." he finished, then muttering to himself, "They got two more than us." My mother continued on, describing the scene in detail but by that time I had tuned her out to ponder more important questions . . . What to do with my weekend? I had no power, which meant no weekend terrorist hunting in Las Vegas or crashing billboards in Paradise. My PSP was dead from uploading new songs a few days before. And my Vaio was also drained of juice from my Heroes marathon. My bad habit of forgetting to charge things came back to bite me. I sighed in disbelief. Here it was, the perfect weekend. I had spent countless extra hours preparing for the State Inspector while writing two papers for the first week of college. And to top it all off, my parents were going to help a friend set up his new business, so they and the dog would both be gone for the entire day.

Here it was, Utopia, the perfect day, and what happens? Some idiot crashes into the main power line and utterly decimates my glorious Saturday. Though, I decided I would try and make the best of it. After my parents and the mutt left, I sat down at the piano and tried my hand at composing something new. I hadn't written anything since Christmas. After what I thought were hours of ill attempts and washed up ramblings of odd sounding scales, I felt it was time to move onto other ventures. I walked back to the kitchen to check the only working clock in the house, and to my astonishment, I had not spent hours at the piano . . . only a mere twenty minutes. It was only a sad and pitiful twelve-twenty. I wasn't ready for lunch, so I thought I'd try my hand at reading one of the new books I bought the week before. I was actually quite interested and hooked by the book that was assigned in my college course having not read a book for months, I thought it might have sparked my vigor to read again. I was apparently wrong. After attempting to read four different books I once again resolved myself to find other means of amusement. After practically pacing around the house for an hour, I figured I would depart from my brooding and make some lunch. Unfortunately, everything I thought of involved power. How about soup, it's awfully cold outside. *buzz buzz* I could make a sandwich . . . but there's no meat. *buzz buzz* How about cereal . . . no milk. *buzz buzz* Just as I was about to give up my hunt for food, suddenly with a flash of brilliance and beeping all around (it set every alarm off in the house), the power came back on. It was one-forty. I rejoiced! I thought I would starve in the barren frozen wasteland of my home, but I was saved by the wonder people at PG&E! I had heat, I could cook food, and most importantly; the lifeblood of my PS3 was back! Though my rejoicing was short lived. To my utter disappointment I found that not all of my high tech goodness had returned to me. Nay, the fates seemed to take pleasure in my agonizing pain . . . the cable . . . was out. No internet, no television, no gaming with friends, or even a simple text chat. I was alone in the world once again. I resorted to desperate measures as I found myself watching a VHS tape . . . I was shocked at the lows I had sunk to. It was not until seven-twenty that evening did the cable return to me. And by that time it was too late to salvage my Saturday . . . and that was just Saturday.

Sunday! I awoke with a new found zeal for life! I was going to game, talk to my friends, and do all the other things I could not do without power and cable. Yet to my dismay, yet again my day would not go as planned, but this was for a different reason. Errands . . . wretched errands. No food in the house meant grocery shopping, no soba and rice in the house meant stopping at the Japanese Market, the cars needed gas, there was the Costco run to perform, the dog needed food, trash need to be disposed of, and the dry cleaning needed to be picked up. Why do the fates mock me so. This must truly be Hitzusen, for that could only explain the events happening to me. I am an Usagi (rabbit) in the year of the Nezumi (rat), I knew this year would bring ill events my way but not on this level. And to make matters worse, a most uncommon event had to happen while all these errands were being completed . . . it snowed. It might not be so uncommon to some people but here at sea level snow was a rare sight indeed. I believe I've seen more snow fall in the Mojave Desert than where I live now, in Far NorCal. This amazing spectacle (to some at least, to me I am of the opinion that snow is scary white stuff that falls from the sky) was both a sight to behold and a complete hindrance. People were stopping everywhere to view this once in a life time event. Lines took forever, traffic laid out miles beyond the horizon, and it made carrying the endless number of bags a chore.

Needless to say, my weekend did not go as expected. Hopefully, this isn't an ill precursor for things to come.