When the internet sucked June 17, 2005 ~ 3:25 pm
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Pierrepont family plot - Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn
Kim and I were talking about this at reunion weekend, and I figured that anyone my age or older (my prime reader age group) would remember the dark ages as well.
Remember when the internet sucked? Back in the early days of the internet, we all thought it was cool because it was a big, new, shiny, fancy toy with all sorts of bells and whistles, but that’s because we didn’t know any better. I mean, for crying out loud, that was when a 28.8 modem seemed fast.
My best friend Leenie had internet service in high school, before anyone else I knew, because her father was a man who liked his gadgets. Leenie would pass me notes in study hall that said “Tonight my family and I are going to surf the net. Do you want to come over?” Hell, yeah, I wanted to come over! We didn’t have a computer at my house - I had to get my gadget fixes from friends. Leenie and I would hover over the keyboard for hours, surfing for anything we could think of.
It’s hard to believe the internet kept us so entertained at that point. We didn’t have IM (or even ICQ), there were no chat rooms (IRC was still a few years in the future), and our choices of webpages to view were limited. We probably found three Def Leppard sites and were in heaven.
Even when I was in college and finally got a computer (my junior year), pickings were still slim. Our professors were still telling us not to trust internet sources (this was before journals were widely available online), and while various chat rooms were entertaining, I remember frequently getting bored with the internet. You could only play in a MUD or a MOO for so long, really. I taught myself HTML and built a website devoted to Victor Garber on Geocities the summer before my senior year of college largely out of boredom. And while it was a kicking site for the time (don’t look for it, I deleted it last year), I could do something a million times better now in a fraction of a second. Technology has moved on.
And thank Goddess it has…how would I spend my work day without Google, or WebMD.com, or Ask Jeeves, or DefLeppard.com, or (Goddess forbid) blogs? How would I get through my evenings without IM to chat with my friends? It’s like asking me to go without TV - totally laughable. Well, I guess I’ll be laughing this weekend since the move will leave me devoid of internet and TV for a couple of days. I’ll be busy, I’m sure, but I’ll also be paranoid; convinced I’m missing something important.
Remember when we weren’t connected 24-7? Before we turned into the Borg? Scary, wasn’t it?
Progress June 17, 2005 ~ 11:36 am
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American Revolution Monument detail, Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
I’m feeling like I belong in a cemetery right now, myself. Rick came over last night and we got a lot of furniture moved over to the new place. There’s still a lot to go, but after moving two bookcases, a dresser, a carpet, a rocking chair, an armchair, a cedar chest, and sundry small items over, I feel like someone beat me. Seriously. I took Advil before I went to bed last night, and I need to take some more right now.
We’re making progress, though. Jordana might come over tonight for a few hours, and hopefully she’ll bring her husband, Thabiso, as well. Still to be moved: the bed, the dining table, two more bookcases, the desk, the filing cabinet, and the TV. After that, it’s all small stuff. There’s a lot of it, but I can do that by myself if need be. I can even move the filing cabinet, the desk drawers, and the shelves from the bookcases over by myself. It’s just the bigger, unwieldy stuff that I need help with. Tonight and tomorrow we’ll have to shut the cats in the bathroom while we move it.
I’ll tell you one thing, though. There are two and a half flights of stairs between old place and new place. I’m not going to need a gym membership after this - I’m getting the workout of my life.
Proof of exhaustion June 16, 2005 ~ 2:52 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedYou know your boyfriend is tired when he says the following:
“It’s early, and I’m already tired. That’s what you get for marrying an old fuddy-duddy.”
Looooong pause, and then it dawns on him:
“Wait, we’re not married.”
No. No, we’re not.
Reunion June 16, 2005 ~ 10:10 am
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Stained glass window - Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Wrote this one a while ago, but wanted to make sure it didn’t languish in draft mode forever…
Reunion weekend…how to describe it? I guess it was most like a roller coaster, with surreal highs and lows. Whatever I was expecting, this wasn’t exactly it. It was wonderful seeing Kim and Dawn again - I don’t have a lot of friends that I’ve hung onto over the years. Leenie from high school, Kim and Dawn from college, and that’s it. As I move on in my life, it’s become harder to relate to the people I “grew up” with. Those three ladies are the ones who have grown with me, rather than apart from me, and who will always be there for me, no matter how much time passes between our phone calls, emails, and visits.
I saw Kim last summer on a weekend jaunt to Philly, but I hadn’t seen Dawn in four years, since I went to her wedding. It was amazing, though, the minute we were all together, it was as if we had never been apart. When we hopped in Dawn’s car for a trip to the local custard stand, I automatically went for the back seat (Kim gets car sick and has to sit up front), and Kim’s foot went right for the “air brake” (Dawn’s driving will have anyone pressing foot to floorboard in a delusional attempt to put the brakes on). We settled into our normal routine of crazy adventures (Geocaching and bushwhacking) and crafting (knitting this time, in the past we’ve done art projects, made bears, played with Fimo clay, etc., etc., etc.) like we had been doing it last week instead of six years ago.
That was the good part of the weekend, and since they’re the people I came to see, I guess it was the important part. But there was something surreal in being on campus again and seeing what’s changed and what stayed the same. I got a little misty when I saw the Playshop Theatre, where I got my crash course in dramaturgy and stage management. But when I saw my senior year dorm room, the one that students fight over because it’s a corner room with a walk-in closet, the first words out of my mouth were “How did I live here? It’s so small!” All weekend, there were little jarring things like that, things to remind me just how far I’ve come since graduation. The sorority girls who ignored Kim and I like we were still in school and somehow less than them because we weren’t Greek. Sleeping in a twin bed, with frat boys running around outside, and thinking “This is really fucking annoying” instead of “Ah, Friday night.”
Kim said a couple of times how she missed being at Allegheny, and everytime she said it, I would think “I don’t.” It makes sense, I guess. Kim only graduated four years ago, just got out of a Master’s program, and is single right now. She’s the closest one to our undergrad days. I was out six years ago, got my MFA work done four years ago, and have been working as a supervisor at the college ever since. August 7 will mark three years that I’ve been with Rick, the longest relationship I’ve been in. Rick has kids, and I’ve tried to become a little more responsible because of them. Most of my classmates haven’t had to yet. It sounds weird and a little arrogant, but I’m the one closest to being an adult, whatever that is. Maybe a better way to put it would be to say that I’m the farthest away from the person I was in college. That thought hit me as we were driving back to my mom’s house. I’m nostalgic for the person I was, but I’ve pretty much let her go to be who I am now. I’m a little sad about that, but mostly happy, like I’m standing on the edge of a new chapter of my life.
Maybe that’s what reunion weekends are about: seeing how far you’ve come, and how far you have yet to go.
It’s that kind of day June 15, 2005 ~ 3:14 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedKnow what this is?
That’s what happens when the pull tab breaks off my can of peaches. What, you thought I was going to throw out a perfectly good can of fruit?
SQUIRREL!!! June 15, 2005 ~ 9:47 am
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Fungus - Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
You remember in National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation where they’re all gathered around the tree and the squirrel launches itself out of the tree and someone yells “SQUIRREL!!!!!!!”? Remember how funny that was?
Yeah. Not so much in real life.
I saw the squirrel this morning. I was on the cell with my mom, and knew the call was going to break up (bad cell reception in basements), so I was trying to hurry out the front door. I opened the door of my apartment, that leads into the hall, and there it was on the carpet, foraging. The squirrel. Don’t ask what it was foraging for - it’s been in my house since Sunday, I expect it’s plenty hungry. I quickly closed and locked the door, and went out the back way.
I barely appreciated the cool air (the heatwave broke a day ahead of schedule) because I was dialing my landlady’s cell. I got her voicemail. “Hey, Eileen? The squirrel? Still there, I just saw it.” She’s already called the ASPCA, and they won’t come out for anything less than an oppossum removal. That’s right, an oppossum. Or possibly a raccoon. A substantial-sized mammal, which apparently a squirrel does not qualify as. Nevermind that the squirrel is the same size as my forearm. Nevermind that really, how many freaking oppossums get into houses in Brooklyn? Come out and get our squirrel, bitches!
The front doors are so staying open when I get home. Fucking squirrel.
I’ll keep him June 14, 2005 ~ 9:21 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedRick, not Jesse. Although I’ll probably keep Jesse, too. However, I will keep Rick because of the conversation we had this morning:
Julie: Lori and I are going to see a show at the Culture Project tonight.
Rick: Oh. Well, if you and Lori decide to indulge in your lesbian sides, you can come over to my place. I’m in touch with my feminine side. She’s a lesbian, too.
Julie: I am so blogging this!
Excitement June 13, 2005 ~ 10:43 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedI’d like to take this opportunity to re-introduce you to Jesse, aka, the Piss Crusader. In case you’ve forgotten what he looks like:
Isn’t he cute? Don’t you want to love him, and hug him, and call him George? Generally I do, too.
Until I come home and find that he’s peed on the carpet like I did today. I’ve had enough of this shit, I called our friendly neighborhood vet. I described Jesse’s peeing in offensive places, how he also has diarrhea (and explosive diarrhea at that, you should have seen the inside of the litterbox the other day), and how I’m moving, so this needs to cease.
Doc said, “Sounds like a urinary tract infection, bring him in, we’ll put him on medicine.”
A half hour, two shots, two new medicines that he will be on for 20 days, and many evil yowls, Jesse has a new alias. The $270 cat. Because that’s how much I’ve spent on him at the vet’s in the past two months. I told Jesse right in front of Doc that it’s a good thing I love him, because otherwise I would put him out with the trash. Seriously, cat, I am not made of money. You need to go to the vet again, you’re selling plasma or something to finance that visit.
In other news, I signed my lease tonight and gave the new Landlady the check. I have keys to my new place now. If it wasn’t going to be 5 billion degrees out tomorrow and I didn’t have plans to see a show with Lori, I’d totally move some stuff over there. Some of the approximately 5 things I have packed. Hey, it’s just moving next door, right?
Fuhgeddaboudit June 13, 2005 ~ 12:49 pm
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Insect Cuneiform, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
We’re knocking wood frantically here, but it’s looking like our heat wave will evaporate before we haul my furniture up two and a half flights of stairs on Saturday. Supposed to be mid-70s, which is decent furniture hauling weather. Now all of you must also knock wood, keep fingers crossed, and rub lucky rabbit feet (or whatever your method of avoiding bad juju is) .
I’ve gotten all the utilities set up for the new place, and while I will have to wait until the 22nd for DSL (I will have DSL!!! No more temperamental dial-up!), the people at DirecTV have more than made up for it. I told them I was moving on the 18th, and they asked if I wanted the satellite guy there that day to hook me up. Not wanting to add more chaos to the mix, I turned that down, and they said, “Okay, how about the 20th?”. This means I will only miss two days of TV, and I love them for it. I would give them Jesse in exchange, but they probably wouldn’t want the Piss Crusader.
Originally, I felt guilty about taking Monday off of work, since I thought we were starting our four-day work week next week (we have Fridays off in the summer), and that meant I would only be working three days. But my boss informed me this morning that our first Friday off is July 1, so now I don’t feel that badly. I will still get a four-day work-week next week, suckas!
I haven’t packed nearly as much as I should have, but that’s why I arranged to have two weeks to do this move. Get the greater majority of it over on Saturday morning (what I don’t take over there Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday), and have time to settle in. You know what the best part is? My new landlady. Not only is she making repairs and making sure the apartment is clean for me before I move in, but when she found out the bedroom airconditioner wasn’t working (she had told me that one did work, so I would just need one for the front room), she hied herself to Lowe’s to buy me one. How awesome is she? You don’t get that kind of service anymore. And here I have to add that Rick, The Best Boyfriend in the World, stopped at Lowe’s on Friday to buy the airconditioner for the front room, because he was worried that they would sell out with the heat wave. I love that man.
Rodents are my lot in life June 12, 2005 ~ 10:47 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedI got a knock on my door this morning while I was on the phone with Rick. When I opened it, I found my upstairs neighbor, Joe (no relation to my cat). Joe asked if I had been home at all yesterday, and I told him not till evening. He then proceeded to tell me that this morning as he was going out, he noticed the lace curtain on the from door was hanging funny. For some reason he looked up, and there was a squirrel hanging from the light fixture. Joe quickly opened the door, but by that point, the squirrel had disappeared somewhere. He thinks it’s hanging out in the hall on the second floor. He wanted to warn me because of my cats and the fact that squirrels sometimes have rabies.
I swear to Goddess, Someone knew I was counting my lucky stars that there were no rodents in this house. But do I get off with a mere mouse, despite my karma points from Thursday? No. I don’t. We’ve called the landlady, left the front doors open a bit, and my door is shut and locked, thankyouverymuch. My cats are mighty hunters when it comes to bugs, but they don’t have front claws, and I don’t know what their odds would be facing a squirrel. Hopefully the squirrel can smell them or hear them and will stay far from us. But I’ve resolved now that we won’t be moving any of my stuff out through the front door. The back door is bigger, and doesn’t have little squirrel highwaymen to waylay us.
In other news…it’s Puerto Rican Pride Day in Manhattan. I told Rick I’d come in to see him and sit in the airconditioning in a few hours, but I’m dreading the trip. Every year I get harassed by Puertoriquenos hopped up on too many cervezas and too much machismo. I’m sure this year won’t be an exception.
On with packing for the next hour or so…move-out starts Wednesday, and I’m not going to be home on Tuesday night. Two more calls to make, and all utilities will be set for the new place. Woohoo!
