Tuesday night, I sang back up for my lovely friend Ruth at a coffeehouse - it was a benefit called "Night for Nets" to raise money to buy mosquito nets & help put an end to malaria. A good cause, & we had a half-hour available to us. We had several really good songs lined up, only 1.5ish of which had I ever heard before. It was exciting, but we've both been incredibly busy lately, so the preparation was minimal. Still, I thought things looked good.
& actually, I'm going to let Ruth tell you the next part of the story via a quote I cut & pasted from her facebook like the creeper that I am, haha:
"The coffeehouse. Well! Let me tell you...we got to the start of our 4th song, theennnnn the ENTIRE campus blacked out! Kinda ironic, considering that the previous song's chorus says "so turn on the light and reveal all the glory" and the last song says "help me see the light...." and the line I sang one second before the power shut down was "for her oppressers are silenced now..." The blackout was even in rhythm with the song, which I thought was pretty cool ;) ... And after the power died we just circled up and finished the songs for our own enjoyment :) ... Plus, with all the lights off on campus, the stars were so clear and gorgeous! It was a great night :)"
That about says it. All of Houghton, town included, lost power. It was
fantastic. After the power went out & we finished the set like she said, we went outside. It was BEAUTIFUL. It's funny, because coming from Rochester to Houghton is an instant doubling of visible stars as it is, so I figured that was it, right? No way. I am such a sheltered little child of the 80s. There. Are. So. Many. Stars. I know, "duh!" But seriously... even when I've been out on the countryside camping at night, I've still been near enough a town or city that there's light pollution. Since all of the town's lights were out & there are only Amish anywhere near us after that, this was the darkest night I've ever experienced. I feel like a silly little child or something going on about stars like this, but really. This was a big deal for me. God is so cool.
So naturally, since nothing too exciting seems to happen in Houghton,
everyone came outside and started going nuts. We ducked into the Chamberlain Center for ten minutes or so to warm up a tiny bit (& because I knew Luke would be there somewhere because of his
Candlewick dress rehearsal, & I figured I could grab the opportunity to enjoy the stars with him for a few seconds... blah blah blah, sappiness, I know. get over it.). There was an alarm of some sort going off... irritatingly & incessantly. We complained briefly until someone (oh, the anonymity of near-complete darkness is exhilirating, by the way) said: "here's a random thought... this is the first time any of us have ever seen stars through the skylight in here." Naturally, we all looked up.
Then the silliness started, haha. Someone made a creepy voice, so I thought it an appropriate time to start quoting
The Shining, and others followed suit. There was a lot of "redrum. REDRUM." happening, then I felt hands on my shoulders (thank you, Ryan) & heard "little pigs, little pigs..." right next to my ear (almost as creepy as Jack Nicholson). The alarm was still going and was still loud & irritating, so we started making tone clusters with it, figuring that sometimes it's just better to embrace the annoying things that we can't control rather than letting them ruin a good thing (incidentally, this is my stance with Lady Gaga...).
Then, someone mentioned that it would make a good drone. We attempted a few songs, finally settling on
Amazing Grace. Cheesy? Maybe. Timeless & beautiful nonetheless? Absolutely. It started with a circle of about 4 or 5 us, and as we continued, the harmonies grew & people joined us until the atrium was filled with faceless voices of people on the ground floor, on the stairs, and on the second & third floors. It was one of those rare times in life where I am overcome by the moment & completely oblivious to the past & future. I was there & only there, and it was so good.
We eventually headed outside, Ruth & I, laughing at all the craziness we heard around us. There were tons of people walking by cellphone-light (oh, 21st century), but we let our eyes adjust (it's funny, the things you learn at camp... like how your eyes really were designed to adjust to darkness & WHAT?! I can
see in the dark??). We walked by a game of frisbee - the product of opportunists & a light-up frisbee - and were temporarily blinded by the headlights of someone who apparently & inexplicably thought it prudent to light up the ENTIRE QUAD with their brights. This was a very false assumption on their part, & they seemed to (thankfully) realize it quickly. Then Ruth: "let's go over to the music building! you know
something fun will be going on there." So we did, although the music building had some emergency lights on, so of course all the
dedicated (read: those who make me feel like a bad musician) musicians were still practicing. Surprisingly, not much fun was happening there. Until we remembered that the 3rd floor windows opened onto the roof... so we hurried past Dr. Newbrough (who was STILL THERE...?) and climbed out the window. AHHH! Best idea ever. Fireworks even started going off. Honest!
After we let ourselves get pretty frozen on the roof, we went back inside for a few, then headed back outside (it's
so hard to stay inside when outside is so dark & beautiful). We headed back toward the campus center, and there was a girl with a megaphone calling everyone to the "party over here!" by her car, which was evidently playing music for the party. Now, if you know Houghton
at all, you know that most of us aren't partiers of that sort, really, so you can appreciate the irony. Greg Bish, the CAB advisor (aka, not a student, but an administrator who seized the opportunity to be awesome, as usual), was handing out glow sticks/necklaces. Basically, it was Houghton's first rave.
Soon after, Ruth & I met up with two of my housemates and decided to head back to our apartment for a movie night on Amy's little DVD player ("I
think it'll hold a charge for a whole movie..."). On the way back, we randomly noticed that the power was back on - ew, street lamps. Well, sidewalk lamps. We were stuck on the movie night idea, though, so we headed up anyway (did I mention classes were canceled for Wednesday anyway because of Senior Help Day?), and since the power was back, we made popcorn & watched
The Proposal on the regular TV. Back to the 21st century.
I heard stories Wednesday about cars driving through the tunnel of the music building & on the quad. I embrace rebellion of the non-life-threatening variety usually, but I think that pushed it a bit... I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but darkness & crowds of people & big hunks of gas-powered metal on wheels in places where they don't belong is not exactly the recipe for harmless fun. But still. All of that aside, it was such a good night.
Actually, it's too bad CAB hadn't planned the blackout. It would have been the cheapest, most excellent campus event
ever. And it didn't even require a chapel announcement or fliers in those little plastic things on the lunch tables. Impromptu blackouts should be incorporated into life in general, I think. I so enjoyed the break from regular life.
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