In the Dark

There was a Gem Faire today!
Which...honestly I debated about breaking my streak of going to said gem faire and just staying in bed....because yah. Headache had me down. Silly thing. Must be the smoke in the air or something.

In any case.
I was like: "NO! I will do the thing!" 

So Kikay and I headed into the next valley over to go look at all the pretty rocks and sparkly jewelry and the other random assortments of odds and ends that are also there.

And wow.
The place was the jam packed with booths.
Like the past two or three times I've gone.
There haven't been as many booths.
So there's often a set up of tables and chairs in either the back or the front of the room for people to sit at and such.

Not the case here. 
There was no room at all for tables and chairs. It was rows and rows and rows of booths.
Seriously, I don't remember it being so big.

But it was exciting because that meant more things to look at, more potential things to buy! :D lol.
So it was fun to see the regular vendors. But nice to see other booths set up that hadn't been there before.

In any case.
Kikay and I were nearing the end of our browsing. In like the second to last/last row of tables to look at. We'd kinda gotten separated. Like. I think she was one row over from me. And I was in the middle of a larger booth looking at all the rocks and such.

When the power goes out.
There are no windows in the room.
A couple of sellers still had lights on.
But overall...the place was in darkness.

And you could feel the uncertainty fill the room. 

I mean...this has never happened before. 
So it was like "Is this....a bad thing?"

Me? I was like: "Oh, the power's out. But look! I have my phone and it has a light! Therefore I can continue looking at the rocks with my flashlight. Go smart me!" 

I only did that for like 10 seconds though.
Before paranoia set in.

Like.
The power is out.
Am I in danger?
Is something 'bad' about to happen? Like a shooting?
Because shootings are so prevalent it feels like nowadays (which is unfortunate.) Was it now my time to experience one in person?

So I shut off my phone light.
Looked for the nearest exit.
Wondered where Kikay was....because she wasn't next to me. Was she near? Was she far? Was she safe?

But.
The power turned back on. No issue.
And you could hear the huge sigh of relief given off by people. A trickle of laughter echoing around the room like "Whew, look it's nothing bad! We're good!" 

So it nearly was like..."Okay! Time to return to shopping!" 

Until someone spoke over the intercom. Telling venders to turn off some of their lights. 
-As vendors all have bright lights over their products to make all the various gems and such sparkle. 
Why did they want those lights off?
Because currently the building was running of generators. 
And having too many lights on....would overwork the system and shut off the entire building again.
And if that happened....they would have to evacuate everyone out.
As a safety measure. Because you can't really hang out in darkness.
They later were like "Lock up your valuables vendors because if the power goes out...there's nothing we can do."

In any case. 
Kikay and I found each other and stuck close together for the rest of the time.
We found a spot to talk, go over what we wanted in the gem faire.
-As we browse first, making note of what we want to buy. (me I take pictures to remind myself) and then go through and decide what we really want and what we don't.
So we picked our chosen items.
Went to the first vendor.
And the power went out once more. 
Only temporarily but the dude over the intercom system was like "Okay all vendors we need all your lights off now." etc. 
So. Not knowing how much time we had.
I bought my things, went to the booth Kikay wanted, bought her thing, went to another booth that had items I wanted...and then we left.

Overall. Not a bad experience.
It was just....kinda weird. There was a weird atmosphere in the building after the lights went out.
Mostly because...we had no idea why they had gone out.
Had the building blown a fuse because there was too many vendors in the room? Moreso than normal? Was it an outside issue like a car accident had knocked out the power to the building and surrounding area? Was it a plot to steal a bunch of gems?

Dunno. We never found out for sure. 

But yah. It's interesting where the mind goes when the power goes out and uncertainty sets in.
Like. Where's the exit? Where's my sister? I have a flashlight good. 
But also it's like "What items did I really want and I would be sad to not get?" Which made it easier to narrow down choices and such without as much dithering because you knew there was a potential time crunch. If the power goes out...you might not be able to buy the thing so hurry and go buy the thing. 

Still though.
Odd experience. 
I'm glad it turned out okay though. :) 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi