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October 6, 1998 |
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how to waste a day | |||||
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Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan |
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Take one bright blue October day. Sleep til 9:00 AM. Pet cat til 10:00 AM. Perform morning ablutions. Drive to Andover. Circle parking lot three times in search of a space somewhat near The Butler's Pantry. Upon parking, rummage in pockets for a quarter to feed the meter. Buy one large dark roast coffee at The Butler's Pantry. Double cup it so as not to burn fingers and drop the whole thing. Walk through alley to parking lot behind EarthFood Store and up embankment to street. Read Newsweek and sip coffee while waiting for therapist. Sip coffee while spending 50 minutes in therapy. Buy combo plate at EarthFood Store: baked veggie casserole with cheese, basmati & jasmine rice, seitan stroganoff. Retrace steps to parking lot where the car is. Re-feed meter. Carry combo plate to Starbucks. Wait in line behind hairdresser taking a long time to choose a pastry. Order coffee. Eat combo plate and drink coffee in nearly empty Starbucks while reading Song for the Blue Ocean. When one hour has passed, leave Starbucks. Decide to drive to Plum Island. Get as far as Elm Street and change mind. Decide to rewind current roll of film with three exposures left on it and then drop film at lab. Change mind on arriving at lab. Go home. Call Bay Queen Cruises. Make reservation for lighthouse brunch cruise for two for Saturday. Dial up ISP to check e-mail. Discover you're over disk quota. Foolishly decide to just copy your entire site back to the Mac. Realize after about 30 minutes, that "automatic" format recognition in Fetch doesn't actually work so all JPEGs copied so far are garbage. Delete garbage. Stop wholesale copying. Decide to be selective about deletions. Starting with July 1996: read each journal entry, copy to Mac, delete on server. Repeat until March of 1997 when Mac crashes. Restart Mac. Connect to ISP. Aimlessly browse web. Remember you should check Providence Journal site for more info on the upcoming public hearing regarding the dredging. Connect to projo.com. Start reading. Crash Mac by hitting something or other accidentally at the same time as something or other else. Reconnect to ISP. Reconnect to projo. Print article. Aimlessly browse web. Realize it is 6:30 PM and you are wicked hungry. Discover there is not enough left over rotini to make supper. Drive to China Blossom. Wait to be seated. Wait for waitress to take order. Wait for correct waitress to take order. Eat dinner. Drive home. Fiddle with tv to make the Fox station come in well enough to watch Yankees vs Cleveland. Watch Simpsons. Realize game is on NBC, not Fox. Dislodge large orange cat from lap carefully to avoid getting scratched. Get up. Change channel (note: the last two steps are only necessary if your TV is over 20 years old and does not have a remote). Watch Cleveland pitching unable to get any Yankees out in first inning. Change kitty litter. Take trash out. Watch new Cleveland pitcher finally get out of inning. Write journal entry. Watch rest of game. | |||||
