Where Was I?

Blackout.

Yesterday one of the leading news stories was about a blackout all along the east coast and into New York. At first I thought it was happening in real time, then I realized how young Brian Williams looked, they were commemorating the ten year anniversary of one of the largest blackouts in US history. Ironically for me, I have no recollection of this whatsoever, it was all brand new to me.  As I watched the images of all of New York walking to work in tennies with backpacks and water bottles I wondered how I might have missed such a large event.  Then I checked the date.  Yep, right in the middle of graduate school.  That it occurred in that two year period might have been enough for me to miss it, but I did in that time manage to take note of the presidential election and the Olympics, how might I have missed the blackout?  The only thing I can think of is field work.  During that time I was spending weeks at a time in the wilderness with no connection to the outside world except for the occasional passer-by or resupply.  I remember that same year hearing about the second Iraq invasion through a professor hiking in to see us; she said she struggled with whether or not to burden us with the news, it being so rare to find people untouched by the war.  Years earlier I remember returning home from a week of camp to race riots that to me seemed entirely out of context having missed the last week of the Rodney King trial.  Today, I wonder what other events have passed me by and how the missing pieces may shape my understanding of the world.