Pretty Low Maintenance...I think.

What I'm Listening To: She by Sugarplum Fairy

This morning we woke up to a power outage. Usually when the power goes out at our house it happens for like a couple seconds, then it's back on. And usually we're not around when it happens. But this time, it went out at 5:45 AM and didn't come back on until 8 AM. Nice. Can I just say, you don't realize how much you rely on electricity til it's gone. Kinda like that boyfriend you were getting sick of but after he leaves you miss him like crazy. That's electricity for ya. Lucky for us we asked for a battery-powered lantern as one of our wedding registry gifts (yeah, I also asked for hot rollers, which I also got for our wedding. Not so good for power outages, but great for sexy wavy hair. Go figure!), so that thing came in pretty handy as we stumbled around in the dark waiting for WE Energies to get their act in gear.

We called into the WE Energies 800 number for power outages (thank you BlackBerry!!), where a nice recorded voice told us that they knew that our section of West Allis was without power, and we should expect it to come back on around 7 AM. Okay, thanks for nothing. Then we called work and left our various messages with our various work mates. Done. No power means no furnace, no hot water heater, no computer, no TV and no lights. So what's there left for a modern couple to do, you ask? "What did the pilgrims do without power?" I asked Jim. "Nothing fun," my husband replied. So we just went back to bed until the lights came back on at around 7:45 AM.

Power restored, the world looked a whole lot brighter. I wasn't stressing about getting to work before 9 AM. I mean, I'm the girl that can get ready on work days -- that means shower, clothing, hair, makeup, breakfast, coat on and out the door -- in 30 minutes flat. I don't know a lot of other women who can actually attest to being able to stick to such a strict time schedule in the morning. It's either their hair is high maintenance or they can't choose an outfit or they take a super long time in the shower or whatever.

And that brings me to the point of this blog today: Are you high-maintenance or low-maintenance? And what does that mean, anyway? Do you just let birdseed happen, and everything just rolls off your back? Or do you need very specific conditions to be in place every day and in every situation in order to feel okay?

Me, I think I'm pretty low-maintenance all around. I'm not fussy about much, except for smells. I have a very sensitive nose so I can smell the fact that you forgot the Arrid extra dry today, or how you didn't bother to wash that shirt before wearing it again, or the fresh onions that you had on your sandwich at lunch are now part of our conversation. But the more that I think about it, I guess I am kinda particular about where I'll go or what I'll eat or what I wear. Hmmm, so I'll have to think on that one some more.

So, are you the Sally in "When Harry Met Sally", the woman who think she's low maintenance when really she's high maintenance? Or are you just a finicky bitch and you don't care who knows it? Or are you the woman who wears jeans every day and thinks that putting on a shirt with buttons is dressing up? Or the one who wears four shades of eyeshadow and takes an hour every morning to blend them just right?

No matter who you are, I salute you. We all have our little idiosyncracies -- let's rejoice in them! And when your power comes back on, here's hoping you're already dressed and ready to go to work! :)