Winter's fine day

After a couple weeks of bitter polar colds, it last Sunday suddenly dawned to reveal an unexpectedly pleasant day. And by pleasant, it was still below freezing of course, let's not get carried away. But still - any day when your nose does not instantaneously turn into an icycle is a day to be celebrated. Delta and I, having written off most of January to hibernation, decided this called for a walk in the park.

When we reached the park, we were instantly halted in our tracks. The sheer beauty around us took our breath away. The settled snow muffled away the sounds of the city. Meadows now covered in smooth, untouched snow were broken by solitary squirrel tracks that created a pattern of lacey filigree across the landscape. The snow had settled on the branches, and the trees, weighed down by it, bowed towards the ground. It was as if we had entered the park in a private moment of it's own.

Silently, we strolled around the park, absorbing the beauty of one of winter's finest days yet.

Of course, despite the beauty and poignancy of the moment, it was not beneath me to indulge my infantile snow-angel fantasy.

Beleagured and befuddled

Being as Delta's computer is on its last legs (and when I say last legs, I don't mean that lightly, there's always a 50-50 chance it might not even turn on), so we decided last September to get him a new one. So Delta had turned to Gus, who is his mentor on all things technological, and Gus had suggested he look into the Mac mini.

So promptly the next day I went in to work and announced to MetroHom, who is my general consultant for all things technological:
"So what's your take on the mac mini?"
And MetroHom took me to the Apple store, and he showed me my way around the mac. "Here's how you access your photos. And here's where you access the web. And here's.... "
But I was already lost.
"MetroHom, look at those photos! They are so beautiful! Just look - "
"Ficali, those are someone else's photos and someone else's memories. Focus on the application and how it works."
"Oh."

But just as I had made up my mind to buy it, MetroHom mentioned:
"Apparently there's supposed to be a new version of the mac mini released in October. Why don't you wait for that so you have the latest?"
It made sense to me. But October came. And October went. And no new mac mini was announced.

By December, I'd grown tired of waiting for that new mac mini, and in burst of spontaneity, I trudged through a heavy snowstorm to the Apple store and bought the current version. It was just before the December holidays, and I thought what a lovely holiday surprise it would make for Delta.

Trudged home in the heavy snowfall, dragging the new mac, keyboard and mouse, and when I reached home, before I could even show Delta my new treasure, he said:
"Looks like Apple's going to announce a new version of the mac mini at the Macworld event in January."
My heart sank. Had I just bought a version that was about to become obsolete?

So I trudged back through the snow to the Apple store and returned the mini I had bought.

And we watched the news closely during the Macworld expo, and they announced a whole host of new and exciting apple products. But NO MAC MINI. AGAIN.
Had I returned the old mac mini for no reason?

We debated it for a while, to buy or not to buy? Finally we decided to just go ahead and buy the current mac mini. I mean, who knew when the new version would come out anyway, right?

And just as I was about to do it today, Delta forwarded me another article. Apparently rumours say a new version of the mac mini will be launched in March.

And so we soldier on, trooper. I mean, what's a couple more months of waiting when we've already been waiting since last September, eh?

Ya really.

I pinged our IT Support guy in panic this morning.

"Help!"

"Sigh. What's up this time?"

"My email isn't working!!"

About once a week, I ping him with a similar crisis, and it's usually something I've done wrong, so I didn't really expect him to bother about me. The boy-who-cried-wolf kind of thing.

But he responded straight away.

"Usually, that's your fault. But today, there really is something wrong with the email. We're working on it."

"Oh, really?" As you can imagine, I was pretty relieved.

"Yeah, I'll ping you when it's up and running. Should be soon."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, in the mean time, you know you can access your email through the web on OWA right?"

"Oh, really?"

"You're an O RLY OWL" he said.

Eh.

But it turns out, unbelievable though it may seem, that the world has actually created an "Oh really" Owl. Long live internet creativity.

So I looked into it some more, and imagine my horror when I found:

Elephants in the Closet

Madison Square Garden, albeit an architectural monstrosity, is the large indoor stadium in Manhattan. Pretty typical for a stadium I suppose - elliptical in shape, thousands of seats, and surrounded by a scattering of seemingly endless stair towers (I guess I always have those faraway seats at the top) all around.

Last year, Delta and I had gone to attend a hockey game in MSG. We were walking down the *seemingly endless stair tower*, and were probably somewhere between floors 16 and 15, when we noticed a small, non-descript door in the corridor. Broom closet, I figured. Probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, if the stair tower hadn't been entirely devoid of other interesting things to look at. There was an MSG employee next to us, and he noticed us looking at the door.

"There's elephants in there," he said mysteriously, indicating the door.
"Eh?"
"Behind that door. There's elephants. That's where they're kept when the circus is in town."
Elephants in that little broom closet?

So anyways, it turns out he wasn't kidding. Or insane. Or disposed towards awkward humour. It turns out that in truth, when the circus is in town and preparing to perform at the MSG, they keep the elephants in this large room high in the tower (the ellies are brought in through another somewhat larger door I assume).

But that was a year ago, and in this day and age of information overload, I had all but forgotten about it, until yesterday. I was walking by the MSG yesterday, when I noticed a large tent set up outside.

Imagine, if you will, the intense crush of population density in Manhattan. And now imagine this density at it's absolute zenith, which is always concentrated around the MSG (not coincidentally, situated right next to Macy's). Now imagine a huge tent right on the sidewalk, in this crippling peak of human density. Forcing people to walk around and bump and generally bumble about flounderingly.

This is what I saw yesterday, as I passed the MSG. Which reminded me that the circus is back in town. Which reminded me that again, the elephants are in the closet. :(

iPhone rediscovered

"I think, as this year's resolution, we should make a better effort to keep in touch with people," Delta suddenly announced.
I gawked at Delta. "Eh?"

"You know - like making it a point to call friends we haven't spoken to in a long time, and remembering birthdays, and special events, etc. We're crap at that!"
I thought about it for a moment. "But I'm just not good at that kind of stuff," I objected.
As though some kind of congenital disorder made the situation out of my control. My voice sounded whiny, even to myself.

"That's exactly why we have to make it a New Year's resolution," Delta said firmly.
"But I already have a resolution for 2009. It's yoga." I pointed out.
"Well, make this your New Year Revolution then."

And that was that.

And just as I was mulling over it some more, he added, "and Facebook and your blog don't count as keeping in touch either."
Crap. Just as though he'd read my mind.

I was giving it some more thought today, when I realised:
- Without realising it, without knowing when, I moved from speaking to people to sending text messages and badly punctuated emails (but I still refuse to use twitter, everyone has their standards)
- I truly do have a congenital disorder that impedes me from picking up the phone and calling people (when in doubt, blame it on the parents)
- I bought my iPhone purely for aesthetics (and the applications), not for real phone usage
- I live my life under the infantile misperception that weekly one-line emails are truly sufficient to maintain relationships (and facebook status updates)

And the more I thought about it, the more mortified I was.

So in a burst of repentance and reformation, I called Cos in Seattle. And Shan-K (but he was busy and it went to voicemail, and I almost resorted to dropping him an email). And spoke to my aunt in Dubai (although she called me, so I'm not sure if that counts). And was just about to make another call, when I realised I really should be working.

So that's enough for today, but I can't wait for tomorrow!

A time for change

"Do you think we'll change out of our PJs today?" Delta asked, catching me off stride just as I was preparing for my third straight day of staying on the couch in PJs.

I mean, isn't that what the holidays are meant to be about? Inertia, gluttony and decrepitude? And, most importantly, day-long PJ allowance?

Sigh.

"Of course we will," I said with forced conviction. "We're going to be wildly active today." Even as I said it, I was flipping through the channels to find a Law and Order marathon.
He shook his head disbelievingly and donned his coat. "Well, I'm off for a walk," he said, heading out the door.

When he returned home an hour later, I'm embarrassed to say, although freshly bathed and sweet scented, I was indeed back in my PJs.
"Banana Republic is having a sale," Delta announced. "Tons of sweaters, you should go check it out."

What?

Good bye, Law and Order. Good bye laptop. I think it's time to get out of my PJs and emerge into the real world.

Top of the year to ye, Guv'nor

Here's wishing you all a wonderful year to come, fraught with many an occasion to celebrate.

And here's hoping that we one day outgrow the infantile urge to wear hats, plastic garlands and noise blowers every New Years.

And here's to celebrating that despite all the alcohol, and the precarious acrobatics involved in the move, we somehow managed to get a self-timed picture of all of us.



And here's a last toast just because, well, New Years just wouldn't be New Years if we couldn't share it with the friends we love.