For Sentimental Reasons
It is Friday. My computer and all its parts have been restored and nothing was lost. A tech guy came to my house (sent by Dell) on Tuesday and took apart my entire computer on the dining room table, replaced the motherboard, and put it all back together again. It was impressive, if only because I was so excited to be getting a working computer again.
Unfortunately, that excitement was short-lived, because my dad had left my AC adaptor at the computer repair place a couple of weeks ago and had not retrieved it yet. Why? Because it belonged to my computer, and thus was (apparently) my responsibility, despite the fact that he was the one who had left it there (to which he freely admitted). Yesterday, then, I went to the computer repair place and had a little chat with the two guys working there. This is how it went, approximately:
Me: Hi, my father came in a few weeks ago with my computer (this one) and his desktop, both Dells. He left my AC adaptor here, and called shortly after arriving home to let you guys know that he had left it. The person he talked to said that they would try to find it, or else would give me a similar one.
Guy 1: Uh, we don't do that kind of thing. I mean, like, I remember the phone call, but we looked and couldn't find the AC adaptor. And we wouldn't just give you another one.
Guy 2: Yeah, we don't just give away AC adaptors.
Me: Yes, I understand that. But the AC adaptor was left at your store -- here -- and I need it back to, y'know, make my computer work? I really just want mine.
Guy 2: We looked and we couldn't find the AC adaptor. [looks at me with an expression that says "You must have it, you dumbass."]
Me: I understand that you looked, but my father called very soon after taking the computer home. We live just over the hill -- it couldn't have gotten lost between here and there, so either it's in our car or it's here, and it's definitely not in our car. We've checked many times.
Guy 1: I don't remember seeing the AC adaptor. We looked and didn't find it. Sorry.
Guy 2: Yeah, sorry. Maybe you didn't even bring it in with the computer.
Me: I'm sure the AC adaptor came here with my computer, and I'm sure it didn't come back to me at home. I guess I just don't know what to do here. The AC adaptor came in here and didn't come home. What do you expect me to think?
Guy 2: Sorry, but we don't have it. We looked all over for it. We'll look again, but...
[The two guys look again, but they don't look very hard - I can, after all, see them looking (the store is just one big room) and they are really just picking things up and putting them down again, talking the whole time about not having the adaptor.]
Guy 1: Yeah, I remember looking and all, but we didn't find it. Sorry we can't help you.
Me: When the computer was brought in, you must have used the AC adaptor, right? The motherboard was fried, but you're the ones who told us that.
Guy 1: When it came back to you was the battery all the way charged?
Me: Yes, it had full power.
Guy 1: Oh, so it didn't even turn on, right?
Me: Yes, the motherboard was fried, like you told me. I had Dell fix it.
Guy 1: Yeah.
Guy 2: Wait, did you use the AC adaptor when it came in?
Guy 1: No, it wouldn't turn on.
Me: But wouldn't you have checked the AC power?
Guy 2: Did you check with the AC adaptor?
Guy 1: Yeah. Yeah, I checked with the adaptor. It didn't work.
Guy 2: Wait, you checked with the AC adaptor?
Guy 1: Yeah, I guess so. Just to make sure it didn't work.
Guy 2: Where were you working on it?
Guy 1: [walks to a low work table where several other laptops sit in various stages of tech support]
Guy 2: [follows Guy 1]
[they look around the table for approximately .25 of a minute before one of them unplugs an AC adaptor that suspiciously resembles mine; they compare notes and mutter to each other, glancing at my computer for confirmation.]
Guy 1: Yeah, here it is.
Guy 2: Sorry about that. [gives Guy 1 a look that says, "Dumb bitch. What an idiot!"]
Me: It's fine, I understand. Things get lost in the shuffle. [try to keep the contempt for stupidity out of my voice, somewhat successfully]
Guy 2: Yeah, we're really sorry about that. Like I said, we looked and all, but...yeah, sorry.
Guy 1: Sorry.
So that was pleasant. Dumbasses. Obviously they looked really carefully. Not.
But the point is that now I have my computer back, and that's very nice. I will eventually sort through the email and answer the important ones, but for now I'm enjoying the ability to surf the web.
_______
Meanwhile, the saga of Cover to Cover continues. I've been there several times this week, but mostly haven't been doing much. I now know how to run the cash register, look up books, and that sort of thing. I know how to check in shipments of books, and how to change the status of special order slips. Woo. The back of the counter (not to mention the top of it) is still an utter disaster (read: pigsty). Oy.
Dog Eared is still good, though exhausting. I'm working tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. Basically the three busiest days -- not that much fun. Well, Monday shouldn't actually be too busy, but still. Woof. (har har) It's really nice to get paid every week -- really convenient, even if I forget to deposit my checks for nearly a week. It'll be really hard to get back to the every-month-if-we-feel-like-it payment system of Reed College.
On those lines, I've been seriously considering applying for a job somewhere else in Portland. After all, I have a car, so it wouldn't be terribly difficult to get there and back, and I would be able to make more money. But I would also have to keep my Bookstore job, partly because I really like it, and partly because that's Work-Study money. If Staccato Gelato is hiring, I'll definitely apply. That would be a fun place to work.
_____
In other news, Tango is going smashingly. I'm now dancing two hours on Saturdays and two or three hours on Tuesdays, plus tomorrow night there will also be a four-hour milonga at the Metronome, at which Los Fabulosos de Tango are playing. Whee. However, all this dancing means I'm considering buying some dance sneakers. One of my instructors wears them and seems to like them; she said she hurt her foot the other day and has to wear her dance sneakers, which makes me think they'll give me better ankle and foot support for practicas and classes -- quite preferable to wearing out my nicer leather heels. Unfortunately, dance sneakers don't give the foot a lift, which makes it a little hard to get used to dancing in them if you're used to heels. Or so I've been told. So I suppose I'll just have to ask, eh?
_____
I decided about a week ago (last Wednesday) that I will stop all this guilt-tripping bullshit with my friends. It creates a nasty cycle, and it's obviously not effective, even if nothing else really is. With Austin, this basically means that I don't plan on calling him. I haven't so far, and the really sad thing is that I don't seem to mind that much -- I miss my friendship with him, but what I miss is the friendship I had with him a couple of years ago, not the calling-frequently-and-getting-brushed-off friendship we had kind of fallen into. And obviously he doesn't care at all. With Aaron, this means I've stopped saying things like, "It was great to see you at Double Rainbow last night -- we had a fun time" when he didn't show up and didn't call me to tell me he wasn't going to, thus making Cloud, Amanda, and me wait for half an hour before we gave up on him. I don't want to give up on him completely, though, because he does seem to recognize that there's something a little fucked up about how our friendship is now. He's made an effort recently, and I've made an effort, and we had a conversation on that Wednesday night about all this stuff, after he spent a very long time on the phone with Austin talking about the same thing (mostly about how Austin has been a royal ass to several of his friends lately, and has become completely self-centered and uninterested in having a real relationship with any of his friends -- just one of convenience). Later that night, Austin showed up at Aaron's dad's office, where we three (Aaron, Amanda, and I) were hanging out, and it was kind of weird... but the point is basically that I think I've sort of figured out how to deal with things so I don't go mad.
Amanda pointed out to me (earlier on Wednesday evening) that I didn't have to put up with people treating me like shit just because we used to have a really great friendship. It made me think; it does make me feel crappy to continue in this cycle, and it's not like I don't have other friends who treat me considerably better. Daniel and Amanda, for example. Leah and Josie and Jason. Kayu. Even Alex always shows up when he says he's going to, to watch stupid girly movies with us or to make fun of my foreign-language films!
What makes me sad is that my friendship with them, particularly with Aaron, used to be so fucking good. So good, in fact, that I spent more time at Aaron's house than at my own houses the summer after my Senior year. So good that I would never have believed things would turn out like this, three summers later.
_____
And now this is long, so I'll write more later.
Unfortunately, that excitement was short-lived, because my dad had left my AC adaptor at the computer repair place a couple of weeks ago and had not retrieved it yet. Why? Because it belonged to my computer, and thus was (apparently) my responsibility, despite the fact that he was the one who had left it there (to which he freely admitted). Yesterday, then, I went to the computer repair place and had a little chat with the two guys working there. This is how it went, approximately:
Me: Hi, my father came in a few weeks ago with my computer (this one) and his desktop, both Dells. He left my AC adaptor here, and called shortly after arriving home to let you guys know that he had left it. The person he talked to said that they would try to find it, or else would give me a similar one.
Guy 1: Uh, we don't do that kind of thing. I mean, like, I remember the phone call, but we looked and couldn't find the AC adaptor. And we wouldn't just give you another one.
Guy 2: Yeah, we don't just give away AC adaptors.
Me: Yes, I understand that. But the AC adaptor was left at your store -- here -- and I need it back to, y'know, make my computer work? I really just want mine.
Guy 2: We looked and we couldn't find the AC adaptor. [looks at me with an expression that says "You must have it, you dumbass."]
Me: I understand that you looked, but my father called very soon after taking the computer home. We live just over the hill -- it couldn't have gotten lost between here and there, so either it's in our car or it's here, and it's definitely not in our car. We've checked many times.
Guy 1: I don't remember seeing the AC adaptor. We looked and didn't find it. Sorry.
Guy 2: Yeah, sorry. Maybe you didn't even bring it in with the computer.
Me: I'm sure the AC adaptor came here with my computer, and I'm sure it didn't come back to me at home. I guess I just don't know what to do here. The AC adaptor came in here and didn't come home. What do you expect me to think?
Guy 2: Sorry, but we don't have it. We looked all over for it. We'll look again, but...
[The two guys look again, but they don't look very hard - I can, after all, see them looking (the store is just one big room) and they are really just picking things up and putting them down again, talking the whole time about not having the adaptor.]
Guy 1: Yeah, I remember looking and all, but we didn't find it. Sorry we can't help you.
Me: When the computer was brought in, you must have used the AC adaptor, right? The motherboard was fried, but you're the ones who told us that.
Guy 1: When it came back to you was the battery all the way charged?
Me: Yes, it had full power.
Guy 1: Oh, so it didn't even turn on, right?
Me: Yes, the motherboard was fried, like you told me. I had Dell fix it.
Guy 1: Yeah.
Guy 2: Wait, did you use the AC adaptor when it came in?
Guy 1: No, it wouldn't turn on.
Me: But wouldn't you have checked the AC power?
Guy 2: Did you check with the AC adaptor?
Guy 1: Yeah. Yeah, I checked with the adaptor. It didn't work.
Guy 2: Wait, you checked with the AC adaptor?
Guy 1: Yeah, I guess so. Just to make sure it didn't work.
Guy 2: Where were you working on it?
Guy 1: [walks to a low work table where several other laptops sit in various stages of tech support]
Guy 2: [follows Guy 1]
[they look around the table for approximately .25 of a minute before one of them unplugs an AC adaptor that suspiciously resembles mine; they compare notes and mutter to each other, glancing at my computer for confirmation.]
Guy 1: Yeah, here it is.
Guy 2: Sorry about that. [gives Guy 1 a look that says, "Dumb bitch. What an idiot!"]
Me: It's fine, I understand. Things get lost in the shuffle. [try to keep the contempt for stupidity out of my voice, somewhat successfully]
Guy 2: Yeah, we're really sorry about that. Like I said, we looked and all, but...yeah, sorry.
Guy 1: Sorry.
So that was pleasant. Dumbasses. Obviously they looked really carefully. Not.
But the point is that now I have my computer back, and that's very nice. I will eventually sort through the email and answer the important ones, but for now I'm enjoying the ability to surf the web.
_______
Meanwhile, the saga of Cover to Cover continues. I've been there several times this week, but mostly haven't been doing much. I now know how to run the cash register, look up books, and that sort of thing. I know how to check in shipments of books, and how to change the status of special order slips. Woo. The back of the counter (not to mention the top of it) is still an utter disaster (read: pigsty). Oy.
Dog Eared is still good, though exhausting. I'm working tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. Basically the three busiest days -- not that much fun. Well, Monday shouldn't actually be too busy, but still. Woof. (har har) It's really nice to get paid every week -- really convenient, even if I forget to deposit my checks for nearly a week. It'll be really hard to get back to the every-month-if-we-feel-like-it payment system of Reed College.
On those lines, I've been seriously considering applying for a job somewhere else in Portland. After all, I have a car, so it wouldn't be terribly difficult to get there and back, and I would be able to make more money. But I would also have to keep my Bookstore job, partly because I really like it, and partly because that's Work-Study money. If Staccato Gelato is hiring, I'll definitely apply. That would be a fun place to work.
_____
In other news, Tango is going smashingly. I'm now dancing two hours on Saturdays and two or three hours on Tuesdays, plus tomorrow night there will also be a four-hour milonga at the Metronome, at which Los Fabulosos de Tango are playing. Whee. However, all this dancing means I'm considering buying some dance sneakers. One of my instructors wears them and seems to like them; she said she hurt her foot the other day and has to wear her dance sneakers, which makes me think they'll give me better ankle and foot support for practicas and classes -- quite preferable to wearing out my nicer leather heels. Unfortunately, dance sneakers don't give the foot a lift, which makes it a little hard to get used to dancing in them if you're used to heels. Or so I've been told. So I suppose I'll just have to ask, eh?
_____
I decided about a week ago (last Wednesday) that I will stop all this guilt-tripping bullshit with my friends. It creates a nasty cycle, and it's obviously not effective, even if nothing else really is. With Austin, this basically means that I don't plan on calling him. I haven't so far, and the really sad thing is that I don't seem to mind that much -- I miss my friendship with him, but what I miss is the friendship I had with him a couple of years ago, not the calling-frequently-and-getting-brushed-off friendship we had kind of fallen into. And obviously he doesn't care at all. With Aaron, this means I've stopped saying things like, "It was great to see you at Double Rainbow last night -- we had a fun time" when he didn't show up and didn't call me to tell me he wasn't going to, thus making Cloud, Amanda, and me wait for half an hour before we gave up on him. I don't want to give up on him completely, though, because he does seem to recognize that there's something a little fucked up about how our friendship is now. He's made an effort recently, and I've made an effort, and we had a conversation on that Wednesday night about all this stuff, after he spent a very long time on the phone with Austin talking about the same thing (mostly about how Austin has been a royal ass to several of his friends lately, and has become completely self-centered and uninterested in having a real relationship with any of his friends -- just one of convenience). Later that night, Austin showed up at Aaron's dad's office, where we three (Aaron, Amanda, and I) were hanging out, and it was kind of weird... but the point is basically that I think I've sort of figured out how to deal with things so I don't go mad.
Amanda pointed out to me (earlier on Wednesday evening) that I didn't have to put up with people treating me like shit just because we used to have a really great friendship. It made me think; it does make me feel crappy to continue in this cycle, and it's not like I don't have other friends who treat me considerably better. Daniel and Amanda, for example. Leah and Josie and Jason. Kayu. Even Alex always shows up when he says he's going to, to watch stupid girly movies with us or to make fun of my foreign-language films!
What makes me sad is that my friendship with them, particularly with Aaron, used to be so fucking good. So good, in fact, that I spent more time at Aaron's house than at my own houses the summer after my Senior year. So good that I would never have believed things would turn out like this, three summers later.
_____
And now this is long, so I'll write more later.