Getting Started
I came face to face with Destiny yesterday. Her avatar took on the form of a little girl that couldn't have been more than 8 or 9.
Danielle and I went apartment hunting early. Early for us is roughly 10am and we ran into the most unlikely of foes: Knology. Knology is some cable service provider that has been staying in the market by gathering exclusive contracts on businesses and apartment complexes. Every time it seemed as though we had found the perfect place we were then informed that Knology was the only cable provider we would be able to chose from. Danielle works for Comcast. Of course, as fate would have it, I wouldn't have cared initially, but it presents a moral dilemma that my wife and I found hard to overcome. Not only would we be forced to buy cable when we could get it for free from her job, but I just can't rap my head around the legality of being unfairly coerced into buying into an apartment/cable service monopoly.
Fuming and fatigued by our rash of unfortunate domain issues we stopped at a McDonald's to try and pull ourselves together and look over our options, see if we couldn't find something more suitable. I was assigned to grabbing the family snackage and on my way back to the table I encountered a tall, smelly guy who looked like he had recently been in a fight. His clothes were ripped to pieces and he was rumbling under his breath about his apartment complex screwing him and he wasn't going to pay them because they wouldn't fix this or that and so I off-handedly remarked, "that's funny, I'm out apartment hunting."
Big mistake.
Mr. Smelly took the opportunity to go off on a very loud and off-kilter rant to my wife and I where-in the highlights were him saying, "Ah, hell. Wouldn't want mine for damn sure. I mean f*&^ it. I have God on my side. I mean I did some bad things (may have killed a guy) spent some time inside, like I sold drugs for like 4 years, but he's there and you know...Hey I could let you talk to my landlord. Shit, I'll get ya a place..." and on and on for the whole restaurant to hear. He even produced a couple of snap-shots of some nephews that he literally threw in front of Danielle and proceeded to tell us how much that he loved 'em even though they were hooligans and talked to him like they were grown-ups. I finally had to intervene and say, "Hey, man. I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude, but my wife and I just wanna be left alone." He said it was cool and left the building talking to himself.
I tried to re-focus on the task at hand. Danielle and I were discussing the virtues of maybe renting a house, even though she had been opposed initially before the whole Knology coup. I noticed a little girl had been leaning over the rails watching what Danielle, my daughter Delaney and I had been doing and so I introduced us. Turns out her name was Destiny. I said, "OK. Why not. Here. Close your eyes and point to an apartment on this page." We talked to her and her mother for a few minutes and the apartment she pointed at used Knology, of course, but it still felt a little pre-ordained, if you will. We did find a house later that was perfect and we're still waiting to see if we might be in contention to rent it, but I know that fate is going to play some role in the whole affair.
I had a dream the other night that I had two daughters. Danielle tells me she's "late". I was watching "Fallen" after not having watched it in a long time a few days ago. There's a scene where Denzel Washington says, "When you've been at it as long as I have you stop believing in coincidence." Damn straight. I covet that dream and I wonder if, with a little luck, my future could be shaping up to be a very good albeit strange game. I'm looking forward to the excitement.
Danielle and I went apartment hunting early. Early for us is roughly 10am and we ran into the most unlikely of foes: Knology. Knology is some cable service provider that has been staying in the market by gathering exclusive contracts on businesses and apartment complexes. Every time it seemed as though we had found the perfect place we were then informed that Knology was the only cable provider we would be able to chose from. Danielle works for Comcast. Of course, as fate would have it, I wouldn't have cared initially, but it presents a moral dilemma that my wife and I found hard to overcome. Not only would we be forced to buy cable when we could get it for free from her job, but I just can't rap my head around the legality of being unfairly coerced into buying into an apartment/cable service monopoly.
Fuming and fatigued by our rash of unfortunate domain issues we stopped at a McDonald's to try and pull ourselves together and look over our options, see if we couldn't find something more suitable. I was assigned to grabbing the family snackage and on my way back to the table I encountered a tall, smelly guy who looked like he had recently been in a fight. His clothes were ripped to pieces and he was rumbling under his breath about his apartment complex screwing him and he wasn't going to pay them because they wouldn't fix this or that and so I off-handedly remarked, "that's funny, I'm out apartment hunting."
Big mistake.
Mr. Smelly took the opportunity to go off on a very loud and off-kilter rant to my wife and I where-in the highlights were him saying, "Ah, hell. Wouldn't want mine for damn sure. I mean f*&^ it. I have God on my side. I mean I did some bad things (may have killed a guy) spent some time inside, like I sold drugs for like 4 years, but he's there and you know...Hey I could let you talk to my landlord. Shit, I'll get ya a place..." and on and on for the whole restaurant to hear. He even produced a couple of snap-shots of some nephews that he literally threw in front of Danielle and proceeded to tell us how much that he loved 'em even though they were hooligans and talked to him like they were grown-ups. I finally had to intervene and say, "Hey, man. I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude, but my wife and I just wanna be left alone." He said it was cool and left the building talking to himself.
I tried to re-focus on the task at hand. Danielle and I were discussing the virtues of maybe renting a house, even though she had been opposed initially before the whole Knology coup. I noticed a little girl had been leaning over the rails watching what Danielle, my daughter Delaney and I had been doing and so I introduced us. Turns out her name was Destiny. I said, "OK. Why not. Here. Close your eyes and point to an apartment on this page." We talked to her and her mother for a few minutes and the apartment she pointed at used Knology, of course, but it still felt a little pre-ordained, if you will. We did find a house later that was perfect and we're still waiting to see if we might be in contention to rent it, but I know that fate is going to play some role in the whole affair.
I had a dream the other night that I had two daughters. Danielle tells me she's "late". I was watching "Fallen" after not having watched it in a long time a few days ago. There's a scene where Denzel Washington says, "When you've been at it as long as I have you stop believing in coincidence." Damn straight. I covet that dream and I wonder if, with a little luck, my future could be shaping up to be a very good albeit strange game. I'm looking forward to the excitement.