Sara's X10 Blog

Things which have happened in the last three days:

1. X10 VP Dave left an enormous bottle of Vitamin C Immune Health supplements on my desk along with the note:
"Share w/ your pod
You're killing us
- Dave"
2. Owen brought me three packets of Black Cherry Emergen-C, which he claims is some sort of magical healing powder. He has also been scolding me re: my choice of breakfasts (Corn Nuts are a valid lifestyle choice!) and bedtimes (I've been going to bed earlier! I swear!), under the auspice of my impending death.

It's like they're trying to tell me something.

Patient Zero and I have been slowly taking down the entire office. She caught the cold first, and my body's never met a virus it wasn't ready to glom onto at first detection, so naturally I got it, then we passed it over to Marko. I've had this cold for a week plus now and my throat's still scratchy, ugh. At least I have enough Vitamin C in me now to guarantee I'll never catch scurvy. Thanks, Owen and Dave!

This is why I need a wife: I'm singularly unable to take care of myself. I lived on my own for a summer and subsisted on Jell-O, Mountain Dew, and Chinese food from the place around the corner. I got only very slightly better once I was employed, because at least I was getting out of the house on a regular basis; I got into the routine of eating at the same deli every day for lunch (oh New York delis, how I miss you above all things), which had me on a pretty steady diet of Polish sausage and avocados and the melty cheese I'd steal off the top of the lasagna, and then I'd get a pint of hot and sour soup for dinner.

[Sidebar- some things I miss about living in New York:

1. The hot and sour soup from the Chinese food place around the corner from where I used to live in Brooklyn. It was really packed with chicken and tofu and like, pure tasty deliciousness, and all other hot and sour soup is a pale sad imitation.
2. Hanging out during the week. Weekends are for relaxing, maybe going to a party, but nobody really meets up on the weekends. You want to see someone, you have dinner during the week after work, or go out to a movie or something. You get lunch. Here, it's work work work all week, driving home after, dinner then TV then bed. People go to bed early. Everyone lives for the weekend. I dislike the clearly defined rhythms of suburban life.
3. Okay, Chinese food some more. $4.95 lunch specials! Chicken and broccoli with garlic sauce, pork fried rice, hot and sour soup. Five bucks! Good food! That could feed me for like, a day. It was a reason to drag myself out of the house before three on weekends, so I could catch the special and then lie around all day until it was time to get ready to go out. I miss that structured routine. And coming home bundled up in the winter cold and wrapping my gloved hands around a full quart of hot and sour soup, maybe with some fried wontons to go with it. Thawing out inside, shaking the snow from my hair and stripping off all the layers, leaning against the heater until I got hot enough to move. Oh simple bliss.
4. Writing letters in transit. I used to keep in much better touch with people when I could write letters on the subway. I have difficulty writing letters otherwise - when I'm just lying around I always feel like there's something else I could be doing. On the subway, it was pretty much listen to music or watch The Office on my iPod, but usually I defaulted to the former and wrote a six page letter to a friend or relative out of a state. Granted, I also used to do this in lecture classes. I got through college by wishing on magic fairy dust and lots of creative writing classes.
5. Walking! Walking to the subway, walking up West Broadway, walking to the Brooklyn Public Library. Headphones in my ears and a hot summer day, having a destination and getting there, walking just to walk.
6. Maple sugar candy from the Union Square Greenmarket, bitten off sweet and melting, paired with a cup of hot apple cider. Sitting in the second floor window at Barnes & Noble reading comics or paging through Greek Vogue, maybe a book of poetry or short stories, hot sugar in careful bites between Sephora-glossed lips.
7. Christmas - the windows at Lord & Taylor, the Cartier building with the big red bow wrapped around it, walking in the first snow, 8th Street with wreaths strung across from lamppost to lamppost, the crowded holiday market in Union Square.

If you can't make it there, well, you can probably make it somewhere else.]

I think I was originally posting to talk about my new Sidekick.

This weekend I picked up the SK3, which is not a "phone," per se, so much as "the personification of joy in my pocket." Internet access! IMing! Email! A camera! Music! The fact of me having one! Geez. Technology is neat.

I also, of course, have the X10 Video Calling System. What this means: I now use my computer to call people and my phone to surf the internet and check email. Life is funny. But when I'm sitting down to have a conversation with somebody, I'd rather be able to see them right in front of me, just like I want to know I have the entire internet in my pocket just in case, you know. Something. I might need it. Look, don't judge me.