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Random Nonsense While I Slowly Exorcise the PC: My Fantasy Travel Gift Bag
Sorry for the lack of recent updates.
A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of telling a friend that life was generally going well (“especially since the cable modem is fixed now�), and I was happy. And I didn’t just tell her; I said the words aloud. You’d think I would know better than to tempt the Universe like that by now, but I don’t know—maybe I was just so euphoric at bidding 2004 goodbye that I got reckless.
Well, I’m paying for that now. Oh, yes, I am.
There have been hospital visits and worried phone calls and crying and plans postponed and cancelled, not to mention some genuinely nasty weather. Oh, there have been good things, too, not the least of which is knowing that the hospitalization situation turned out okay. But the most visibly, tangibly frustrating reminder of what a bitch life can be right now is my parents’ PC.
What can I say, really, besides, “Thank all that is good for the Powerbook?� There’s nothing quite like a malfunctioning firewall and a barrage of PC-based malware to make me grateful that I have a modern Mac. Or perhaps more accurately, there’s nothing like trying to fix a malfunctioning firewall and clean up after a barrage of PC-based malware to make me grateful that I have a modern Mac. I’m sitting here, babysitting, as various programs try to scrub my parents’ system, bored out of my mind, with nothing better to do than occasionally click “Next� or “Okay� or “Yes� or “Restart Now�.
I might as well use these mostly uninterrupted stretches to write, right? Even if it is just freeform crap?
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Last night, I finished re-reading one of my favorite books from those rocky years of early adolescence, and I can say with some relief that I wasn’t disappointed in it; I was half excepting to cringe and go, “why the hell did I love this so much?� but I didn’t. It wasn’t a cheap, whiny experience, but a book with real characters and relationships of integrity—a little simplistic, perhaps, but warm and authentic.
It made me proud of whatever part of myself is still twelve. I don’t know if it matters really, but it feels good knowing that the person I am today can still respect the person I was ten or eight years ago—or her taste in books, anyway. Somehow, I can look back on all the struggles and the tears and the loneliness with a little less embarrassment because of it.
Anyway… the details of the book itself aren’t that important. But one thing really struck a chord and has been running around my mind in circles all day: at one point, the protagonist mentions that before she went on a trip, her mentor gave her a gorgeous new bag with all sorts of pens and notebooks and trinkets hidden in its many pockets. I couldn’t help reading that, glancing at my beat-up old duffel bag, and going, “oooh, I want that.�
And then, of course, it wasn’t too long (I’d estimate, roughly, 30 seconds) before my mind started making its own little list of things that would be in my own Fantasy Travel Gift Bag™. Not necessarily because I want to go anywhere right now—with the weather the way it is, I’ve done pretty much everything I can to avoid going out of the apartment lately. But these things can be so much fun to think about.
I’m still satisfied from my trip to Toronto last month, honestly I am. It’s just… I have this very visceral, gut reaction related to travel; I love thinking about it. I’m happier thinking about it. I love the comforts of home, but there’s just something about going new places and doing new things—or even just thinking about going new places and doing new things—that excites me like nothing else can.
Hence, a quick list:
- A travel-sized alarm clock.
- A medium-sized lined journal with hardcover and good quality paper, to use as my main travel journal—a place to record impressions, reflections, and ideas at the end of the day.
- A small pocket-sized lined notebook (e.g., a Moleskine) to carry with me and take notes.
- A medium-sized sketchbook, preferably wire-bound, to use for doodles.
- A number of medium- and thick-pointed pens, preferably with fast drying ink.
- Ebony black drawing pencils
- Some high-capacity Compact Flash (Type I) cards.
Aside to a certain gentleman in Cape Town: don’t even think about it. Really, please just don’t. Berate me however much you please for being ungracious or too independent for my own good, but the truth of the matter is you have two grandchildren who have much more use for a fairy godfather than I do. Spoil them instead of me.
It says something about me, I’m sure, is that all I really want are some notebooks and pens and pencils and “digital film� for my camera. And yet—sitting here, I can’t really think of anything else I’d honestly want in a bag like this, other than location-specific background reading. What else would someone want before they went on a journey, destination and specifics unknown?
What are in other people’s Fantasy Travel Gift Bags™, I wonder?
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