Saturday, June 30, 2012

Thanks for telling me, Twitter.

A little background: I was born in D.C. and raised in northern Virginia, where my parents still live.

Wow. It took Twitter to inform me of the terrible storm in northern Virginia. Virginia is trending worldwide because the storm has caused major power and phone outages, taking Instagram offline and causing problems for other internet companies with servers in the area. People have died from fallen trees and 911 call centers are down. Two and a half million people are without power and temperatures are supposed to reach 99 degrees.

I had no idea, so once I saw this I called my dad's cell and house phone. Both gave me that fast version of the busy signal. They're down. I called my mom's cell phone and she told me she was getting ready for a party. Um... What?

Me: "You're going out? Just because the storm is over doesn't mean trees can't still fall. When the ground is wet and the trees are damaged by the wind..."
Mom: "Ohhh okay. So I von't take any small roads, just beeg roads."
Me: "Don't you think you should call them and see if the party's still on?"
Mom: "No. Don't you tink dey'd call if eet vuz canceled?"
Me: "Um... Not if their phones are out." (Or if their house has been crushed by a tree, for that matter.)
Mom: "Ohhh. Okay. I call."

She is determined to party.

In other related news, I read the following in an article regarding the outage of 911 call centers:
"In Fairfax County, people with emergencies are being told to report them in person at fire and police stations."

I'm imagining a man running to his local fire station. As he gets to the door he leans forward to catch his breath and puts his hands on his knees, heaving and panting. "Th-Th-There...There's a fire! Started...th-th-thirty minutes ago, th-th-three m-miles back!"

Finally, please allow me to sound like an old fogey for a moment even though I'm 23. The way we receive information has shifted so drastically! It boggles my mind that I found out about this storm on Twitter because Virginia was trending in the world! Bizarre.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Nothing on Facebook is truly private.

This gem popped up on my news feed. This is why I stay friends with people from middle school on Facebook. The best part is, she'll probably never see this blog!

Friday, June 08, 2012

Let's chalk this one up to culture because I have no other explanation.

My mom called a short while ago. Here's how the conversation went down--or should I say downhill?

Mom: "You're home on a Friday night?"
Me: "Yes."
Mom: "Hehehe!"

Thanks, Ma. I'm adding that to the list of Shit My Mom Says.

Come to think of it, this list really should be expanded to include the following gem, posted on my mom's Facebook page by one of her relatives.
At least she said please and thank you.
Oh! Let's not forget the time another one of my mom's relatives told her that she saw a picture of me on Facebook wearing "see-through night clothes." 1. I'm an adult. 2. It was a bikini. 3. I was at the beach.

That is one reason why I reject about half of my relatives' friend requests on Facebook. The other reason is that despite your familiar last name, I've never heard your first name before in my life. In other words: who are you, how are we related, why haven't I heard of you before, and why have you heard of me?