July 18, 2006 :: The memo I didn't send

On Sunday night, I was cleaning out my phone. I rarely throw away or completely erase anyone's phone number, because I figure I never know when it might come in handy, but that doesn't mean they need to be in my phone. I like to keep my phone book under 100 entries, so I can scroll through it easier. Everybody who doesn't need to be in the phone directory goes into a scratch file or something on my Palm for long term storage.

Anyway, I deleted a few people whose numbers no longer needed to be in the phone. One was a girl I went to lunch with once, called twice thereafter and hadn't heard from her since. I know a brushoff when I see one, so I deleted her number and kept it moving. I also deleted the number of a friend who I had always flirted around with... rather, we flirted around with each other. But then a while back she told me she was engaged to be married, and I figured it was best to let things go. So I deleted her number too.

Both of these people contacted me out of the blue on Monday. The lunch dater apologized for being all held up at work for days on end, and said she'd call again. The flirt... well, she popped up on IM (forgot to delete that one) and wanted to know how I was doing. I wasn't at my desk at the time, so I didn't get to find out why she'd contacted me. Oh well...

posted by Rainmayun at 4:12 PM -

July 13, 2006 :: The lazy stroke

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine about a guy that she dated, and then gave the brush-off, mostly because she was more interested in someone else. And he won't go away. He, in fact, is getting more and more pressed, saying things that indicate he is, for lack of a better word, sprung. So I joked with her and said she must have put it on him. And she laughed, in that self-confident way, and said she did a few extra tricks with him. And now he wants to come back.

There are some situations in which you don't really want to put it on someone that you are sleeping with. Maybe you don't know if you want them to stick around yet. Everybody doesn't deserve your A game. These situations call for the "lazy stroke". The lazy stroke doesn't necessarily mean to just be lazy. You still want to put in a good show. But you don't pull out the extra tricks, the extra effort. Just give them enough to enjoy it, but not enough to stay hooked.

I know some men do this. I have even done it myself, in the past, although at this stage in my life I'd be more likely to avoid her altogether if she was not deserving of the A game. I suspect some women do this, too, so I'd like to find out: ladies, have you ever given someone the lazy stroke?

posted by Rainmayun at 9:26 AM -

July 05, 2006 :: Blown away

I survived Hurricane Independence. Actually, it was a ferocious thunderstorm that lasted probably about 25 minutes, but it sure felt like being in a hurricane. I was out at Hain's Point at a friend's family barbecue, enjoying some ribs and potato salad and talking enough smack so that I could whoop whoever was left on the table when it was my turn to play dominoes.

Being that this was a standard black folk production, there was all manner of liquor hidden up in coolers and what not. So when we saw the Park Police roll a truck up on the grass and pull the nose right up on the family barbecuing next to us (and they had tents!), we scurried to hide stuff. I laughed because a table of 20 previously quite loud black people had become eerily quiet, and I told them they all looked guilty.

Turns out the Park Police had come to warn us that there was a storm coming (which I already knew), and that we had roughly an hour (which I didn't know, thought we had more time) before it was going to start hailing on us (which I definitely didn't know). I don't understand the bizarro weather patterns out here on the east coast... back where I am from, frozen watear in any form does not fall from the sky in summer months when the temperature is over 80 degrees. Or even over 40 degrees. At any rate, we debated what we were going to do, and then as we saw the storm rolling in over the river (and lightning striking the river itself), we decided to cover things up and ride it out.

Big mistake.

About ten minutes later, the wind started blowing about 40-50 mph, and the rain came down fiercely. Our poor attempts to cover the food up saved a few things, but a lot of other stuff was lost. I managed to keep my head relatively dry with my severely tested umbrella, but the rest of me was soaked, especially the shoes. After a few minutes, I got brave enough to get out from under the tree and cross the open field (while holding a metal shaft umbrella, and with lightning striking all around) to get into my car.

Soaked again!

For those of you who don't already know, I got completely drenched two weeks ago during the Great Flood of DC... so this is starting to become a habit I need to break. At least it hasn't gotten me sick like it usually does... maybe taking a daily multivitamin is actually good for something.

You know what though? The ribs were worth it... lip smackin' good.

posted by Rainmayun at 3:17 PM -

July 01, 2006 :: Watching it snow

My cable went out on Thursday.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be remarkable news. My cable's gone out before, but it usually comes back on in a few hours. This time, though, my cable's been off for 48 hours, and it's still off.

I've been caught.

For the past 3 1/2 years, I've had a remarkable run of "unanticipated" cable tv viewing. For some unexplainable reason, some contractor guy for Comshaft decided to turn on my cable a few months after I moved here, and it's been on ever since, at least until Thursday. I can't imagine how that would have happened.

OK, I guess there's no need to play the charade... I saw the guy come over to hook up my neighbor's cable, and I asked him what I needed to do to get cable. He said I should call Comshaft, but when I told him I didn't want to call Comshaft, he offered to do it for $40. I was already prepared to start negotiating at $50 and go up to $100, so I jumped on it... he undersold himself. The truly sad part is that he still made more off my hookup than he made doing the legitimate hookup - and Comcast wondered why so many people had unbilled cable tv.

So I got about 43 months of extended basic, analog cable for $40... not bad. But now I am faced with some choices. This free cable was viewed on my 20" old school cathode ray tube tv that I bought in 1996 for $225, and nothing else. I'm not a huge TV person... I turn on Sportscenter in the morning for background noise, I turn on Law & Order or NBA basketball in the evening, and I turn on the Sopranos when I remember to watch it... and that's pretty much it. So with free cable, the cost of upgrading to digital, or the purpose of buying a new fancy 16:9 ratio tv with HD and all the bells and whistles didn't make sense, because my costs were low. I've wanted a new tv, but I sure as hell didn't want to pay Comshaft anything at all, ever. I've considered satellite, but going from $0 per month to anything over $40 just wasn't appealing. And without upgrading cable, it didn't make sense to upgrade the tv.

But now, it's upgrade or nothing. And while I could probably live without tv, it's nice to know whether or not a flash flood is headed this way sometimes. So I'm considering upgrading. And I figure, while I'm at it, I might as well get something that's appropriate to the room... squinting at a blurry tv across the room is an artifact of college living that's hung around too long. So I'm looking at 32 inch LCD tvs... but geez, $1400 for a tv is just crazy to me, considering that the $225 tv was the most expensive tv I've ever bought... matter of fact, it was the only tv I've ever bought. I guess there are people who watch tv enough that spending $1400 or more make sense, but I am not sure I am one of them.

But it's so pretty....

Maybe I'll use the proceeds from selling the beloved Prelude to finance a new tv. Circuit City has a nice 32" Polaroid LCD HDTV for $899 after what appears to be a $200 rebate (ugh, I hate rebates, but that's another rant). Polaroid makes tvs now?!? I can remember when Polaroid was synonymous with instant photography... ok I've just dated myself. SO let me end this rambling post.

Let me know what you think... is a $1000 tv utterly ridiculous, or am I just behind the times?

posted by Rainmayun at 11:29 AM -