I Procrastinated but I Have Pictures

I was going to write a third installment of “How to Survive Without the Internet,” but I don’t feel like it anymore.  I have the internet now.  My anger has left the building.  

Also my lovely boyfriend, the subject of the 3rd installment, and I got in a fight & made up since the story happened.  So it seems like the inspiration for the story has also left.  

Let that be a lesson for Jewel & all of you procrastinaters -- if you feel like telling a story, tell it right then.  If you wait, the story will not wait with you.  

I will mention this one very touching moment.  He sang to me. 

His family brought out the karaoke.  Not just any old karaoke -- old school karaoke.  They were singing Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, Cat Stevens and B.B. King (B.B. King style, with an old black man & a raspy voice).  They were all fantastic.

He sang Barry White’s “You’re My First, My Last, My Everything.”  Then he didn’t stop singing.  Song after song after song.  That lovely boy can’t carry a tune very well.  But his charming & crazy personality carried his performance. 

It was the sweetest thing he’s ever done for me.  

And now pictures to make up for my lack of storytelling & my lack of pictures for the last several posts.

I really wish this picture wasn't blurry cause I love it. 

 

His dad & uncle.  They talk & walk EXACTLY the same.  This was the kind of laughter I saw all night.

Dad-to-be, uncle-to-be, & husband-to-be.  Sometimes people think they're all brothers.

He took me to visit a friend on a farm.  Don't remember ever standing so close to cows.

I like to call this one Bessie.

Just a tree I liked on the way.

Classic Marcus face.  I promise he really is happy because he's about to go hunting.

The End. 

Stay tuned next time for the 15 reasons I'm not liking being pregnant.  Don't worry, I've already written it, so it will actually happen this time.

How to Survive Without the Internet 2

Their house in the country was given to Mom-to-be about 10 years ago when her mother (Big Momma) passed away.  They only use it when they visit a few times every year.  So almost everything is the same as it was back then.  

Furniture is falling apart.  The musty smell makes me wonder if it’s me or the house.  Cobwebs line the windows & doorways.  

Forgotten keys hang in forgotten places.  Dated china sits on dated shelves.  

An American flag stands up in a bottle of Sam’s Choice Grape-Cranberry.  

It’s cold & wet outside.  The plumbing isn’t working like it should.  The bed is uncomfortable.  Does it hurt my baby when I can’t sleep?  Why am I here again?  

I look closer.  

A calendar hangs from the year 2000.  I ask everyone if she died that year, but they can’t remember exactly.  Must have been.  

Photographs of generations of family everywhere.  The similarities to my family’s old photographs are remarkable, heartwarming and amusing.  Pictures fascinate me.  

A cousin visits that they haven’t seen in years.  One of the best story-tellers I’ve ever witnessed.  For hours they exchange story after story of their childhood.  

That empty cabinet is where Big Momma kept her candy stash.  One day he stole a piece and hid underneath it & fell asleep after eating it.  They called his name, gathered the whole family to go searching for him in the woods behind the house.  He was found eventually when he woke up & crawled from underneath the cabinet with the candy wrapper tumbling to the floor.

They rode the pigs & tried to hide it from Big Momma, but she always knew why they were so tired.  

Of course, his tales are much more colorful.  I wish I had a video camera, but then I remember that those moments are often more precious in my mind.   

Mom-to-be tells me who the people in the pictures are.  When they died.  How they lived.  

She shows me pictures of Marcus as a baby & child, and I wonder how similar ours will be.  

All of the stories of laughter and life make the cold dirty old house seem warm and cozy.   

How to Survive Without the Internet

My internet has been down for four days.  Four days!!!  I posted on Twitter when it began, "I feel naked.  And alone."  I couldn't do homework, I couldn't work.  I couldn't write my brilliant thoughts on this blog.  And even though I could occasionally pirate a connection from my apartment's office if I put Mona (my laptop) close enough to the window, I still felt helpless. Betrayed.

And I know that I could have gone to Starbucks.  To another coffee shop.  I could have gone to my restaurant, sat in a booth & gotten free drinks and food. 

But people kept promising me the internet. 

Time Warner (bastards) promised to come by on Friday between 2 and 5.  So of course I had to stay home waiting for their arrival.  They didn't come. 

A new company promised me the fastest internet in existence, & they overnighted me the equipment.  But then for some reason, I couldn't install their software onto my computer, and of course, after three hours of tech support, they realized it’s a problem they’ve never seen before.  It needed to be escalated to the next level.  Someone will contact me.  One day.

Then Marcus & Mom-to-be invited me on their trip to their family’s country in Arkansas with the allure that there is internet there.   I hadn't been seeing him a lot lately anyway, so I agreed to go.

Guess what?  There was no internet.

So I was forced to delight in the peacefulness of the country.  To spend time with my loving Mom & Dad-to-be.  To get to know practically all of Marcus's wild & kind aunts, uncles & cousins.  And when he wasn't hunting, I was forced to enjoy surprising & charming moments with the father of my child.

It was quite an adventure.  So much so, that I think I'll tell you more about it the next few times I write.

I was going to give you a preview, but I'm using that pirated connection, and it's slow. 

Yes, I still don't have the internet.  But I'm not so mad about it anymore.  Because of the fun times I had in its absence.