Saturday, August 29, 2009

dandelions and high speed internet

over the past year i've gathered a stack of unread and unopened books in my apartment. my cleaning lady kept them in a huge box (i asked her to start packing my stuff months ago when i thought i was moving out). anyway, i open that box almost everyday but i never got to open a book until last night.

before i left for dinner, i knew i shouldn't have disconnected the internet. i was late paying the bill last month and i forgot to pay them this month. when i got home, ready and raging to play my facebook games (specifically sorority life and farmville), i couldn't connect. the bastards took my internet connection and i was left with no choice but to look for something to read.

some nice things spring out of seemingly unfortunate events. i took out some magazines, quickly got bored and finally opened Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury. I wasn't through with the first paragraph and i was immediately brought back to the Spaulding kid's summer. it's still so clear in my mind how i imagined the kid sitting at the front porch with his grandfather on a hot summer afternoon when i was first introduced to Bradbury. Dandelion Wine started a romance that went on for around nine years, i think... i'm not sure. but i remember lying in my bedroom at my grandma's house, reading Dandelion Wine, all giddy and happy and sweaty.

i miss reading books. i miss reading Bradbury books. i miss reading his prose. i miss being taken to wherever he wants to take me. i miss tasting and smelling and feeling whatever it is he wanted me to taste, smell and feel.

but i also missed my facebook games. and twitter. so first thing i did this morning was go to the mall to get free wifi, harvest my crops and organize events for my sorority sisters. i also looked at new internet providers and dropped by the bookstore.

i bought 3 books and got a really good discount. it's like i got one free. I got "A year in high Heels" and "How to Walk in High Heels" by Camilla Morton and "Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me" by Lucia Van Der Post. I vaguely remember reading about these books from the magazine i was browsing last night. With the new environment I am moving in right now, with the grown up job and all (haha :)), i figured i needed to learn a thing or two about grace and not act and dress like a kid who just got out of college...

eager to read my new books, i sprinted out of the bookstore.

i decided to ditch what i thought was my super fast wired broadband connection and got a SWB. I don't regret it for one second. it's almost a half cheaper than my old subscription and twice as fast. sometimes, you really get lucky. i was so set on getting GTW, but when i got there, ready to pay for the kit... the lady bluntly said that their signal in my area is really week.

AAAAND... another provider has amazing signal in my area. just really amazing. i was tempted to ask her which one it was... but that may seem a bit rude (and her manager was staring at us). she was nice enough to be honest about the lousy signal, it would be asking to much if i asked her to specify which of their competitors would give me this really amazing service.
so i sprinted out of their store.

there were only two other providers, i wasn't getting specific answers from the second provider. When i asked her if the signal is strong in my area, she answered, "yeah, the signal is strong everywhere... we've sold a lot of kits today. a lot of people signed up"... i wasn't convinced that that was the one.

so i sprinted out of their store.

the third provider was specific. "we have strong signal in your area. we have a lot of customers from that subdivision. Mr. ChopChop from something street is a subscriber, is he your neighbor?"
well, Mr ChopChop is not my neighbor and i don't know who he is, but i was sold... i paid for my kit and just as i was leaving the store... i heard my sales guy say to another customer, "we have strong signal in your area. we have a lot of customers from that subdivision. Ms. BlahBlah from somewhere street is a subscriber, do you know her?"

i smiled and sprinted out of their store. amused and hopeful.

Friday, August 28, 2009

there are days

... when you just wish someone tells you that everything will be all right ...


... that whatever happens, they got your back ...
... can't remember the last time someone got my back ... i think i was fifteen ...
... that was way too long ago ...

Thursday, August 27, 2009

"self" portrait

that girl on my blog is so sad... that's not me anymore. I should change that picture one of these days.