i’m 31

We have had no phone service and thus no DSL since last Thursday. The phone company apparently cut our line when they dug through our yard to replace our neighbor’s line. It’s unbelievably difficult to talk to a human being at the phone company (and initially you can’t; a machine “initiates a repair call” for you) and later they tell you that the problem is your fault (“we show that the problem is a short in one of your telephone sets.”) It’s supposed to be repaired by tomorrow evening, but I’m not holding my breath. I WILL, however, demand a refund for the five days (or more) that we have been without service.

I had a good birthday. We went out to breakfast, saw “American Splendor,” and Doc gave me some really cool gifts, including a Kitchenaid coffee grinder, a lava lamp, and this totally cool DVD box set of old educational films. The weather was perfect — upper 60s/low 70s, and light rain all day. In fact, we’ve had rain pretty steadily since Friday.

More stories. It turns out that I have a lot to say about the 1970s. I didn’t know that there was this much to tell.

For first grade and half of second, I went to Alief Elementary, a public school near my house. My closest friend was a girl named Tawny Crane. She was my age, but I thought that she was much cooler than me because she already knew how to write her name in cursive handwriting. She, and what seemed like all the other girls except me, always wore these knee-high brown boots that zipped all the way up the side. I very much wanted a pair of knee-high brown boots, but I don’t think that I ever got any. I’m pretty sure that we didn’t have a whole lot of money back then, because dad was in grad school or maybe it was his first job out of grad school, and Mom made most of my clothes and I distinctly remember drinking a lot of powdered milk.

I also had another friend who lived somewhere along my walk back home from school. I don’t remember her name, but I loved going to her house because she was in ballet and had a real actual pink tutu, which I think she let me wear. I had this weird obsession with ballerinas when I was a kid. She also wore these white leggings that were made of wool, or they were fuzzy or something.

I was very shy when I was little (I guess I still am, but I was much worse off then). I never felt that I fit in or that I was cool. Once, in first grade, I remember lying to some kids who were talking about a movie that they’d seen, and when they asked me if I’d seen it, I said yes. Of course, I hadn’t seen it, had no idea what it even was, but I said something about liking that part when that guy said that funny thing, or something fairly general in nature, but still feeling like I was treading on very dangerous ground, because they might find out that I lied.

There was a joke that Grandma told me that for some reason I associate with a particular classroom in the 2nd grade: Knock knock. Who’s there? Isabel. Isabel who? Isabel necessary on a bicycle?

Alief Elementary had a Christmas fair, and they had a bunch of tables set up with what must have been homemade crafts that the moms made. But I remember thinking that it was the most wonderful Christmas store in the world, because I could take the few dollars that I had saved up and buy a gift for Grandma and something for mom and dad too. I don’t really remember what I bought her; I think it may have been some ball-shaped ornament. That was probably the first time that I had ever shopped.

— not posted at 9:44 p.m., because i have no internet access 🙁