Every website has one...and so should you. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE
the Internet. I make my living because of it. I've been shopping on it
since Day 1. Used AOL before there was a World Wide Web when you had to
dial-up to get on. Being married to someone known in our circle as The
Man – because he can fix any computer problem – leads people to believe
that I'm as tech savvy as he is. People are continuously surprised when
they discover how low-tech I actually am. There seems to be a
disconnect when I explain that I just work on the computer, I don't
understand how it works. Sure, I can install software, program my
iPhone and even add more memory to a machine in a pinch, but when it
comes to setting up an email account, using a Blackberry, texting from
my phone or posting a video to YouTube, I have less knowledge than a
5th Grader.
You won't find me on MySpace, Linked In or Facebook. Partially because
I run three websites and want to have a life away from my
computer...though I love it so... but mainly because I find the idea of
"social networking" more than a little creepy. Is it really social if
you're just typing on a computer by yourself?
High Tech, Low Tech, and On-line Afflictions
Technology
Snowflakes in Southern California
Jeff and I go to the gym early every morning. Since it’s still dark out when we leave, it’s been pretty chilly lately. This morning when I turned the key in the ignition, the dashboard starting flashing. It also began to beep—a subtle bing, like the musical “fasten your seatbelt” bing that you hear on airplanes. “Great,” I sighed, “something else is broken.”
Jeff, never one to presume the worst, leaned over, looked intently at the dashboard, and said matter-of-factly, “Nothing’s broken.” “It’s not?” “No. It’s just a snowflake,” he said. “What’s just a snowflake?” I asked. “On the dashboard. Look at the temperature,” he said. It read 39 degrees. And there it was—a cute little snowflake.
Apparently Volkswagen was thoughtful enough to alert its drivers when it’s cold outside. Having driven the car only in Southern California, we had never seen it before. If this keeps up, I’m gonna have to ask my mom to let me borrow some of those gloves and scarves I gave to her when we moved here.
Deal or No Deal?
Tis the season of Sample Sales, or so it seems when the mailers start
arriving announcing this 40% off (but it's in downtown LA) or that 80%
off, but not until two weeks from now when I’ve completely forgotten
about it and f*#k it anyway, where’s the instant grat? I subscribe to
Daily Candy and Top Button, the latter being exclusively an online
sample sale site. There is also a mother at my younger daughter’s
school whose clothing line I happen to love that has her sample sale
around this time too.
It’s taken me a long time to become a savvy shopper when it came to
these 'deals’. I was the sucker that clipped the coupon for something
at the market I would normally never eat. I would be under the illusion
my family might try the yogurt covered zucchini chips for 50% off.
Invariably it would linger past its expiration date and get thrown out.
This always jettisoned me into the ‘I’m gonna be homeless someday, why
oh why did I waste my money like that??” fear fantasy. I would vow
never to make that mistake again and I finally learned that the only
coupons worth clipping for me are batteries and toothbrushes. Do I
really need that 35¢ off the second four pack of Charmin? Hell no!
The Silence of Summer
With the NBA Finals over (Yeah Celtics!), the Stanley Cup won, March
Madness completed and the race for the Triple Crown decided, we can
finally relax because the demon (a.k.a. the Super Sports Freak) has
subsided…at least for now. Summer is upon us and the only sport we need
to worry about is baseball and no one really cares about the outcome of
these games until Labor Day. Well, except my husband…and millions of
other men around the world.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I married a sports fanatic.
When we were dating it didn’t really seem important. Then when we moved
in together, I realized that if I wanted to spend any quality time with
The Man, I better get interested in the game. Any game. I initially
picked basketball because it seemed to have the least amount of rules
and was over quickly. Of course, my skill at retaining useless
knowledge and obnoxious competitive streak soon had me winning the office pool for March Madness and
using my husband’s vast love for the game to help me pick the right
players for my Fantasy Basketball Team, which I also won. The men in
the pool, i.e. everyone else, were not amused.
Anna and I
There are only certain places I can take her. She is sort of bulky;
she never orders anything. Nowhere too crowded, I wouldn’t feel right
taking up a booth with her. But at the same time, nowhere that doesn’t
have the possibility of running into someone more interesting, in case
I wanted to ditch her, or at least set her aside for awhile. Somewhere
with just enough scenic beauty to fill a background but not enough to
completely divert my attention from her.
Today I tried a new place that neither of us had ever been to, or
perhaps she had, with a former companion. La Conversation, nestled
just under Sunset on Doheny. I stared over her and people watched,
hoping to enter into a ‘conversation’ with someone I had not yet met.
I watched a beautiful older woman accompanied by her nurse and her
nurse’s son. The woman daintily forked her salad while the nurse and
her son loudly fought about his day and the nurse gulped down a
smoothie. The woman looked past her dining mates in my direction,
although her senility suggested she stared into space and wasn’t really
interested in me.
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