How I Survived Being Offline for 25 Hours

I didn't realize just how attached I am to my TV and laptop until we lost cable and Internet on Saturday afternoon around 4 pm. Time Warner told us it was a planned outtage in DUMBO and the Heights and that it would be back later that night, not to worry.

So we watched a movie and went out for dinner, and when we came home, the TV was still black. We thought about watching another movie, but we ended up laying on the couch in our apartment enjoying the blackness and silence that surrounded us.

When we awoke on Sunday, we expected the TV to work and unfortunately it was still off. We called Time Warner again (this was like our 8th time) to ask if they understood just what day it was and how important it was for us to have TV today. My husbund opened up his call to Time Warner by saying, "I'm nervous...," which was totally understandable given that it was Superbowl Sunday, one of the most important days of the year to have cable. We were told that the planned outtage was now an unplanned outtage but no one had any status updates, but they were doing everything possible to get it back up. They just told us that they were located in Flushing and they too, had no cable service.

We came back from breakfast at Bubby's, which was packed (hard to tell if more than usual). We talked to the bartender, who had only agreed to work that day cause he figured at least he could watch the game on the TV at the bar. After we got home, it was still out. We retreated to the bed where we listened to music and read the paper. It was really relaxing and nice for a change.

But then, around 3 pm, when the cable hadn't returned, we started to get really nervous. What if it wouldn't come back in time for the game? I had tracked down one of the TWC workers on the street in my hood who had promised it would be back but it was coming down to the wire. Plus, I am not a huge sports fan but we were having people over and needed to make a call.

Finally, around 4:45 we had made a call to go to our friend's apt on the UES. I forced my husband to watch an episide of Dance Life, my new obsession on MTV. At exactly 5:01, the TV came back. We literally jumped up and down in the living room. It was kind of sad that the TV affected us so much and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Maybe the cable should go offline more often...