Happy for HP!

There are a few perks to living here! Aside from meeting a famous person this summer at a local event, I had something really awesome (by my standards) happen to me yesterday.

I GOT TO SEE THE HARRY POTTER MOVIE FOR FREE BEFORE ANYONE ELSE THAT I KNOW!

Let me first start my story by explaining how much of a geek I am when it comes to Harry Potter. I’ve grown up with the guy. I started reading the books when I was in the sixth grade and finished the last one when it came out my sophomore year of college. I’ve seen every movie opening day (thanks to a tradition started by my dad) and didn’t plan on ever missing one.

This time was going to be the first time I wouldn’t see a Happy Potter movie at its midnight showing. No one that I know here really cares about Harry Potter. They don’t get the warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I hear any mention of Harry Potter. I kept talking about it and trying to find someone to go with me, but no one really wanted to stay up late to watch me geek out over a movie they could care less about.

My good fortune began when I attended the ribbon cutting for the remodeling of the local movie theatre. I saw that the theatre was having a midnight showing and decided to see if there were tickets still available and go by myself. I asked about the tickets; there were two left. This theatre only takes cash, so I told them I was going to the ATM after the ribbon cutting and I would be back to get them. Suddenly, the owner comes out of nowhere and says, “We are doing a screening of the movie at 2:30pm to make sure it runs correctly before tonight if you just want to stay and watch it with us.” BOY DID I! I got so excited, I was cheesing hardcore. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

I immediately text my boss with, “They are allowing us to see the first screening of Harry Potter if we like. Please say I can stay! Please, please, pleeeeeeaaase!?” I didn’t get a response for a while and I was starting to get worried as the clock counted down to 2:30pm, but she finally called and said, “I know how much this would mean to you, so it’s okay with me.”

The owner, as a goodwill gesture, invited all those who attended the ribbon cutting to the Harry Potter screening as well, but I’m the only one who stayed. (This town really doesn’t like Harry Potter, I guess.) I was in the theatre all by myself; my own private screening. It was awesome. PLUS, I got free soda and popcorn!

In the end, I didn't get to see the movie at the midnight showing. The movie was great and I’m still gushing over the experience, today.

It's fricken freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth!

It’s getting cold here in Tiny-Townville and I’ve gone into hibernation mode for the winter. I packed up my stuff and moved into one room (my bear den) and have been performing daily tasks in there, such as, primping, microwaving meals and sleeping. Why have I moved all my stuff into one room for the winter? Because that is where my space heater is.


I am refusing to turn my heater on due to a nasty rumor I was told by my neighbor. They said that their electric bill was $600 two months in a row last winter. This seems ridiculous, but after asking others who live in historic homes, such as I, it turns out they have suffered the financial hardships of winter heating. Here are the reasons given to me as to why the bill would be so high:

1) It is an electric heater and costs more money than a gas heater. (And no, I will not be replacing the electric heater with a gas one for this rats’ nest, since I am not the owner.)
2) This OLD house is poorly insulated.
3) The air ducts are in the ceiling of my house… and heat rises… therefore, the heat doesn’t reach the lower habitable part of my house (you know, where the food, bed and TV are), making it inhabitable.

Since I live in the same house as these neighbors, I assume that I will meet the same billing fate if I chose to turn the heater on. My lack of wealth has caused me to forgo the luxury of heat.

My situation makes me wonder what the rest of the people living in historic homes are doing? Have they switched from electric to gas? Are they just going without heat as well? Or are they suffering the financial burden of their high priced electric bill in order to not lose the tip of their nose to frost bite?

I’ve tried moving the space heater to other parts of the house, but the other rooms are just too big with too high of ceilings for the heat to circulate through the room properly and make it warm. When I brave the living room for a half hour to watch a DVR’d show, I have to huddle in front of the space heater to avoid hypothermia. If I walk anywhere not carpeted without shoes, my toes go numb. It’s only 54 degrees out, so what am I going to do when the temperature drops into the 30s? (BTW... I think it's cold when it is 70 degrees out.)

On the bright side, my electric bill was only $49 last month. I guess I can use the extra money to buy more blankets… or an extra space heater.

Wifi Queen

My sweet boyfriend got me an Amazon Kindle, an electronic reading device that allows you to go online using wifi or 3G internet and buy books, for our birthaversary. (Our birthdays and anniversary are all within three weeks of each other so we get one present for our birthday and anniversary, thus the birthaversary.)The Kindle I have is the wifi addition because my boyfriend figured as long as I’m in the United States I should be able to pick up a wifi connection, after all who doesn’t have the internet??! I do not have internet. Neither does anyone else in this town, apparently.

You may wonder, “How can a person technologically savvy enough to have an electronic reading device not have the internet?” Well I work a lot and I can never get everything done. If I had the internet at my house I would probably work 24/7 and trust me, I do not get paid enough to sit on the toilet at my house while I type emails to people who think I’m too young for this job. So for the sake of having SOME SORT of personal life, I have decided not to have internet. I do have internet on my phone for light Facebook browsing, but for the most part, once I leave work that is it for my outside connection to the world other than a phone call… How barbaric is my life?

Anyway, I don’t have internet and my boyfriend buys me a Kindle, so today at work I see if our office has wifi. It doesn’t. We have Ethernet, I’m sure to keep all the locals, who would want to hack our top secret information, from using it. So I Google searched where to find a wifi connection in this town. Apparently Dairy Queen is the place to be. Dairy Queen is the only place in this town where you can get a FREE wifi connection after 5:00pm.

Now, let me tell you something about this town and Dairy Queen, it’s the HUB for bumpkin-ville. After 5:00pm until the time it closes; Dairy Queen is the most happening place in town, aside from Wal-Mart. It isn’t the only place to eat, but it is the only place that serves any kind of decent treat after 5:00pm.

Now you might ask, “Why not go to the public library?” Because I kid you not… this town does not have one. It hasn’t had one for over a year. No wifi connection for the citizen of this fair town.

So I sat in the parking of Dairy Queen, while all the busy bees pulled in and out of the town hive with their delicious treats, register my Kindle and ordered my first electronic book. And NO, I did not get a blizzard.