Nothing like an old fashioned brownout to make you realize that your condo building makes a perfect haunted hotel.

Half of my hallway was lit, the other wasn't. The half that was lit had no power in each unit. The half that wasn't lit had some power in each unit. Most noticeably, no power to my alarm clock, which is a crucial part of the "oh lawd, I gotta get up already" process every morning. I also need to go shopping for some essentials:

• a backup battery or alarm clock
• full sized candles so I don't have to burn my fingers and waste my time lighting teensy weensy tealights
• a flashlight
• a slightly less inky black cat so that I don't trip on him in the dark and cause bodily damage to the both of us