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dateline: oZturn

17 november 1996 1:13 a.m.

They should make it illegal to provide shopping carts at a computer store. This is addiction, ladies and gentlemen. What I went through today will prove definitively how insane I am. I woke up before noon, dug out a credit card I hid from myself after I vowed I'd never touch it, gave up a million-dollar parking space (it was a Saturday in Waikiki), drove through the heaviest rain yet -- we're talking visibility of 10 feet here, with everyone on the freeway nervously crawling along at thirty -- and spent two hundred dollars I don't have on a modem that's probably faster than my computer. I also broke down and picked up the Eudora 3.0 upgrade, which feels even clunkier than the old version, and -- even at a zippy 28,800bps -- just took half an hour to download the mail I've been accumulating all week. If I'd broken down and tried to hit the mega sale at Ross (the social gala of the year, to hear my coworkers talk), my debt would probably rival that of the nation right now. I'm so very, very very broke, but I'm back! My new, net-traipsing steed is ugly as hell (and it doesn't quite fit on the table), but it works. At least I still had my Computer City disk-of-the-month card. I got this free blank diskette which -- although my computer won't touch it -- makes a very nice coaster. I stopped on the way back ("on the way" used loosely, as Mililani is a twenty mile detour into the middle of nowhere) to visit my aunt. Walking up the steps, it was a little eerie to find myself expecting to hear my uncle's gruff "Howzit!" His chair was still there, in the middle of the room, but this time it didn't turn when I opened the door. Yet... it was like he was still there. It was just a feeling, almost a spiritual smell, but the place simply didn't feel empty. It felt like he was simply part of the house. It was also very encouraging to see my aunty was as sharp and hyper as ever. She was running around, talking ceaselessly, forgetting where she'd put something she was just holding. She was bummed that the rain was keeping her from tending to even more new stuff she'd planted in back, and before I left she unloaded a grocery bag of tangerines on me. She really seems okay. I couldn't help worrying, or distrusting her seemingly unaffected energy, but seeing her today was reassuring. Straight after work yesterday, Derek and I took in "The Mirror Has Two Faces." It was either that or "Space Jam," but after an unusually depressing watch, I wasn't in the mood for Bugs Bunny. It wasn't bad. I love the dialogue in Streisand movies (the only reason I tolerate Woody Allen flicks), and seeing Lauren Bacall on screen as a total bitch counteracted having to see Pierce Brosnan in another one-dimensional Brosnanesque role. I liked it especially because of its effect on my date. Few things can make a guy squirm like sitting through an entire "chick film" dedicated to examining the role of sex in a relationship. His blush... just made me melt.