Twiddling-Thumbs Post (and Thanksgiving Weekend Report)
I think this is probably the first time I am writing a blog entry just because I have to do SOMETHING while things are uploading very slowly in another window. (I had promised a few of my students I would read their research paper outlines and get back to them before tomorrow. For some reason, scanning the copies with my penciled-in comments seemed like a better idea than just e-mailing the comments. Having already committed the time to penciling and scanning, I am now committed to uploading the files, very very slowly with my dial-up connection, in e-mails to said students.) There is a lesson in here, I think, about letting go of bad ideas, or not letting go.
So, while I am uploading and twiddling, here is my report on Thanksgiving in my neck of the woods:
Thursday, with the family, was lovely. Pretty low-key, just five of us.
Friday I ventured out into the maelstrom of "Black-Friday" shopping, because I had a gift certificate to an electronics store from last December that I wanted to use to buy myself a little audio system. I never have a day off from work to do things like this and the weekends always seem to be taken up with other things. So, there you have my reason for joining the crowds the day after Thanksgiving: not because of the sales, not to "get a jump" on holiday shopping, but just because I was off from work. I will say that the store was as chaotic as you can possibly imagine, people clustered around the displays of computers, games, and audio systems, long lines at the register, the store assistants criscrossing the store with stock on dollies, looking as if they could barely restrain themselves from barking any time someone had a question. Either that or they just looked pathetically listless. The one person I got to answer my question (after about four tries) very creatively made up an answer. (Why, I wanted to know, couldn't I get the radio to change stations on the model I was looking at? Because, he said, we're in the basement and there's no reception down here. But, I said, I can listen to the radio on these other models. That's because we have an antenna behind them, he said. When I got the system home, I discovered you had to change the stations with the remote control--that's why I couldn't get them to change in the store. I had to admire the clerk's inventiveness.) I did buy a system, got out of there pretty quickly, took a cab home with my purchase, met a friend for coffee and then went to yoga, so the day got a lot more serene as it went on.
Saturday I set up my little music system, did some cleaning, went out to dinner with my sister.
Today--well, mostly commenting and uploading. But, defeating the oncoming tide of winter, my friends and I went out into the mild afternoon and played volleyball! I managed to get out there at around 3:30. By 4:30, sadly enough, it is getting dark now, so I only played for an hour. But it made me happy, as always.
So, while I am uploading and twiddling, here is my report on Thanksgiving in my neck of the woods:
Thursday, with the family, was lovely. Pretty low-key, just five of us.
Friday I ventured out into the maelstrom of "Black-Friday" shopping, because I had a gift certificate to an electronics store from last December that I wanted to use to buy myself a little audio system. I never have a day off from work to do things like this and the weekends always seem to be taken up with other things. So, there you have my reason for joining the crowds the day after Thanksgiving: not because of the sales, not to "get a jump" on holiday shopping, but just because I was off from work. I will say that the store was as chaotic as you can possibly imagine, people clustered around the displays of computers, games, and audio systems, long lines at the register, the store assistants criscrossing the store with stock on dollies, looking as if they could barely restrain themselves from barking any time someone had a question. Either that or they just looked pathetically listless. The one person I got to answer my question (after about four tries) very creatively made up an answer. (Why, I wanted to know, couldn't I get the radio to change stations on the model I was looking at? Because, he said, we're in the basement and there's no reception down here. But, I said, I can listen to the radio on these other models. That's because we have an antenna behind them, he said. When I got the system home, I discovered you had to change the stations with the remote control--that's why I couldn't get them to change in the store. I had to admire the clerk's inventiveness.) I did buy a system, got out of there pretty quickly, took a cab home with my purchase, met a friend for coffee and then went to yoga, so the day got a lot more serene as it went on.
Saturday I set up my little music system, did some cleaning, went out to dinner with my sister.
Today--well, mostly commenting and uploading. But, defeating the oncoming tide of winter, my friends and I went out into the mild afternoon and played volleyball! I managed to get out there at around 3:30. By 4:30, sadly enough, it is getting dark now, so I only played for an hour. But it made me happy, as always.
posted by Sarah Sometimes at 5:46 PM
4 Comments:
It was mild here too -- I'm glad you managed to get some volleyball in.
Hooray for a new stereo, even if you had to go out on Black Friday to get it.
Scrivener: yes, I am enjoying the new stereo at this very moment. It was long overdue.
PPB: You, a woman of the cloth? I'm shocked!
About a year and a half ago, I traded in my dial-up (AOL--me and about a million other people) for DSL. I pay about $10 more a month, but I figure the time it saves is worth far more than 33 cents a day.
I can relate to the I-committed-to-it-and-now-I'll-see-it-through- but-through-gritted-teeth attitude: Someday I'll blog about my adventures with voice comments in MS Word. Liberating and shackeling, all in one little bundle.
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