3.8.05

How to get ready for a vacation (a marginally amusing email anthology)

Luckily, Priya's right and the RFID issue won't apply to me this year. I may be able to post while I'm gone, but I wouldn't put money on it. For your possible amusement, I'm posting a selection of vacation-related email chat before I go. As usual, there is some minor editing involoved.

E: [context: getting out of a meeting with Weberman that was scheduled for the day I was supposed to leave town; I described the problems with meeting as a socially constructed impasse. It was downhill from there.] I am going to a place where the internet does not reach, and so IM meetings are out, as is the wonderful TUWSNBN email system. I could travel 55 miles to the closest internet cafe, which is really just a computer with dial-up set up in the back of a trading post, but I won't. And not just because it costs so many Loonies.

I love my computer, but there are limits to my devotion to all things technologically advanced. There are fish with my name on them, and I intend to spend all my time catching and cleaning said fish, as I do every August. Perhaps I will even eat some of them. Or some of those fries with the gravy on them. I might even go crazy and buy some syrup, who knows?

Of course, I'm also going to be reading Power/Knowledge, everything I can by Meadows, Forrester, and Sterman, The Anarchical Society, and Wendt.

I'm trying not to think of the reading too often, and pretending I can, in fact, go on a real vacation. It's less depressing that way. A little less.

Priya's going to be housesitting for me while I'm gone. We're in disagreement over who's being done a favor in this situation.

P: just making sure:

cats get fed once a day in the evening. food place is in the kitchen near the sink. fresh water too.
any instructions on how much they eat? i'm sure you said it and i've forgotten (i was rather slow yesterday after a day of slaving away fantasising over my future lawyer-mate)

E: um. ok, going to leave the fantasy thing well alone. They get most of a bowl; it's about a cup and a half.

P: shouldn't leave my fantasy alone. should foster it. am trying to practice my non existent wiles.

E: can you practice them if they don't exist? is that like playing the air guitar? "air wiles"?

P: litter box gets changed when full. it is in the dark creepy place next to the entryway. you will leave changing stuff there too (and i presume it is obvious how to change it since i don't want to ruin the litter box)

E: yep. the dark creepy place is a closet, and it holds the alcohol as well, which you are welcome to enjoy while you're here. the litterbox container snaps in and out of place pretty easily. I think there are instructions--I can leave them out just in case.

P: instructions would be much appreciated but if it is clear enough (the mechanism) then no worries and i'm sure i can figure it out. don't be daft! i won't be drinking your alcohol (though may watch your tv/dvds. let me know if that's not okay/how to do it if there's any special stuff involved)

E: okay, well, if our booze isn't good enough for you...should be fine watching dvds, tv, etc. You have to turn the tv to the playstation and use that (the control is attached) to play dvds.

P: plants get watered often. will do this, no worries

we are (most likely) chatting on thursday evening about film.

E: that's the plan. it may be a little later, since I'm going shopping w/ my sister [20% off at Old Navy. Totally worth going back early.] You can log on from our computer if you like.

P: might have to. but not sure how. so prob won't. does it need instructions? special passwords? if you don't see me online thursday evening, assume i could not log in. my computer has decided not to function too well (and besides , i'm leaving it at the law school till friday so i won't have to lug it about)

[snip]

P: question: can my sister and i swim in your pool?

E: I think so. Will check with the apt manager and make sure.

manager says yes--I'll leave out our cards for you. Just don't use the guest pass, because that requires our id for some reason. He didn't really explain it very well. I guess try to look like your names are Elizabeth and S?

P: any idea when yous are leaving? don't want to turn up on wed in case yous are not leaving then but don't want to pass up free night in the city in case yous are (is getting tedious now) :-)

E: we're leaving thursday morning, but you're welcome to stay wed. on the futon. we'll be pretty much packed up so there won't be stuff to trip over. [By pretty much, I mean not at all. We usually throw things in the car the morning we leave. But the not-tripping part is pretty accurate, since all our stuff is still put away.]

P: will prob come by early thursday to drop off backpack and then head to uni. if that's okay with yous. not TOO early but around 9-ish. (morning). thanks for the offer of the futon but i think i'm headed to the wilds of maryland this time. i think. or mara.

E: ok. will maybe see you then, if we haven't left yet. If we have, thanks again for housesitting. Not much in the fridge, but you're welcome to whatever there is. sauerkraut omelette, maybe? I think we have all the stuff in there for tuna salad. [I've actually eaten a sauerkraut omelette. It wasn't a pleasant experience. But then, I wouldn't eat buried spinach twice either. Or those fermented dough balls from the Ghana Cafe. So maybe I'm just picky.]

same goes for the cupboards. There may be some noodles up there somewhere.

P: btw, sorry about the rambling I and B email to you and Weberman. i am not as much of a nutter as i appear (though it is difficult to tell)

E: no harm, no foul. given my earlier email, he probably thinks we're both round the bend. [This would be the email above; I only quoted the part that didn't make me sound deranged.]

P: think you should have a break and forgot about uni stuff for a while. forget! go hunt fish!!

E: here, fishy, fishy...

P: ok, now that is disturbing...

E: what? it's my super-special fish call (as taught to be by my dear old gram. she also taught me to bluff in poker). I was practicing it. that way I'll be ready for next week.

And it isn't just Priya who has been subjected to the vacation-prep saga...GSpice thought we were just talking about my recently deceased prospectus draft.

E: prospectus has been tanked by SystemsGuru, without even having read it. He gave me a new reading list and instructions to return with a dynamic hypothesis and a reference mode before I do any more of my lit review. sigh. It's going to be a long year.

You'll note that I am, as usual, unable to think of a title.

GS: I'm pretty sure subsequent drafts will get you there. We'll brainstorm over ice-cream :-)

E: woohoo! coldstone or gelato? not that it really matters. All they have in Ontario is fries with gravy (Priya, I don't care if it has a fancy french name. It's still gravy.) Not even a funnel cake stand.

I may need to print this and cut it up. Guess that can be another vacation project (other than the "here, fishy, fishy" thing)

[snip]

No email after Friday until the 14th (again, "here, fishy, fishy..."), but I'll try and have something reworked when I get back. How much of a geek am I if I take stuff by Sterman and Wendt with me on vacation? What about my laptop? Is there any way that reading about h5n1 while sitting in a boat ISN'T a geeky thing to do?? sigh. There was a time when I was cool. Well, cooler than this, at least :)

Off to pack, since we're driving to Ohio first thing in the morning...

Thanks for the feedback (get it? feedback? oh, never mind.)

Of course, as a systems person, I can argue that cramming my personal and professional issues is theoretically sound. I think. Well, maybe not the fish thing.

2 Comments:

At 8/04/2005 11:06 AM, Blogger Priya said...

I still say they should have issued you and your family with a wireless tracking device: it would have provided us blog readers with much entertainment. Though (and this occurred to me much later after my post. I did say I am slow) how would they (the authorities) track people if they (the people) ditched their cars (where the tracking device is attached) and then wandered off into the wilds of Canada for nefarious purposes?

 
At 8/05/2005 1:50 AM, Blogger Elizabeth said...

I'm going to post some stuff about a deck before I go. It was really funny tonight at the diner; we'll see if it translates into text.

And I think the idea is that you can't recross the border without the RFID. I don't know that they care if you hang on to it while you putter about the provinces.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home