most recent sad moment in my life- last night, i was sitting in my room watching the extra features on the squid and the whale after a fabulous 15 hours of unpaid work, when the power went out. just on my block, but i feel like that makes it even more annoying, like god had specifically picked us out of all the blocks to get screwed over. luckily my laptop still had 6 hours left of battery life, so after fruitlessly scouring the house for candles (a difficult task in the pitch black in an apartment that really isn't your own), i continued watching semitic stud Noah Baumbach explaining the brilliant study in adolescent development and parenting that is the squid in the whale. after a few minutes, i started to notice that i smelled garbage, and thought, "that garbage truck needs to realize that the streetlights aren't working on this block." but then i checked out my window, and there was no garbage truck. puzzled, i went back to the movie. after a few minutes i smelled it again, so i went to go see if i could find the source. on getting up from my couch, i stepped in something wet and thought, "darn, i must have knocked over my water." on going to pick up my water, i discovered that what i had actually spilled was an almost entirely full can of bud light that i had been using as an ashtray for about a month. shocked, i put it upright and began to feel around the carpet for the damage. it was pretty bad, so i went to feel the can and see how much beer/cigarette crap was left. i then realized that i hadn't put the can upright, but had actually put it upside down. hence, the entire contents of the beer/cigarette crap/probably some mold were all over my rug. i took a whiff, and let me tell you, that is the foulest smelling stuff in the world. i don't really feel like recounting the experience of trying to clean this up in the middle of a blackout, but i'll just say that my rug is still very wet and smelly.