The "A" Word

In case you missed it, the Bay Area got hit with the fiercest storm in over five years on Friday, leading to over 1 million power outages throughout Northern California. Around noon, the lights flickered valiantly as the power lines fought against hurricane-force winds, but ultimately I was left in the dark.

My first reaction was, of course, to grab my iPhone.

I looked on the list of available wi-fi networks and, finding none, deduced that the entire neighborhood was affected by the outage. It was then that I knew it would be a long day alone with AT&T's lackluster EDGE data network.

Hours passed, and I eventually stopped trying to be productive. It was nice (for a while) to read by the window, but as twilight settled in and the battery on my phone reached 20%, I knew that I had to take some serious action.

Fortunately, my brother's friend had invited us over for dinner. We forgot to ask if we could bring a bottle of wine or anything, but we did bring our laptops and cell phone chargers to plug in once we got there. While our host cooked, we would periodically check email or idly surf our favorite sites just because we could. At that point, I was just calling it a "guilty pleasure."

It was only when we went to a movie later in the evening that my brother mentioned the "A" word. I contend that it was his fault.

Two minutes before showtime, he said he didn't believe me when I told him that both Michael Cera and Jason Bateman (of Arrested Development fame) were starring in the film we were about to see. Clearly, I had to pull out the iPhone to correct him before the opening credits rolled. So once again, I found myself slogging through the EDGE network, searching IMDB for the cast of Juno (very good movie, BTW).

"I think you might have a slight internet addiction," my brother said. I didn't bother to look up as the Safari taskbar edged ever so slowly across the screen.

The verdict: I was right, but I had to wait for the opening credits to prove it.