Internet in absentia
Man, either I’m paying off something bad I did a while back, or I’m paying off some karmic principle to improve my extended-metaphor credit score. My internet at home is out – something funny is happening in the wiring in my house (which my Dad denies, but… with breakers flipping left and right…)
So. Without internet, three things occur:
One – I cannot get in touch with my people in China to figure out the correct answers for my Visa application. I’m going in on a tourist Visa to start, then switching over to a proper work Visa quickly thereafter (it’s a safety precaution to balance the fact that my Diploma – which China requires for a work visa, for some reason – is liable to arrive on Marlboro Time. Which is to say, “whenever the mood suits them.”). I had wanted to go to New York today (another fun fact: China does not allow Visa applications by mail. All inquiries must be made in person), but without a completed app, why bother? However, I’m scheduled to work next week, Monday – Wednesday, then I’m hopping up to VT for Senior Dinner on Thursday and staying until Commencement on Sunday, which means I can’t get into New York for another week. And a week later, I’ll be flying to Chicago. Processing time for the visa: estimated 4 days. I fear this might be Chinese for “whenever we damn well please.”
Two – My website went down because a) I don’t update it nearly often enough and b) no one visits it. My webhost, with its generous allotment of bandwidth and storage, understandibly has a policy of taking down inactive sites. I reactivated the account, but I don’t have the means to reupload the content. Le, as the say in the French, suck.
Third – without the internet’s glorious rays in which to bathe my poor, socially and culturally starved gray matter, I have little to do but cling to dried up husks of old NCIS episodes to try and distract myself from the complete, sucking vaccuum of Connecticut that has pretty much absorbed this transitional portion of my life.
On the upside, I have been making money, so that’s good. It’s a shame how much of it has to go into getting this damned Visa – 130 for the visa, 15 for the pictures, 40 for the round trip on the Metro North, and I’ll probably have to pay for the return shipping for whenever they get around to stamping my passport.
Five more days until I can leave this god forsaken armpit of an armpit of a state again.
(I spent 20 minutes standing in a doorway with a lost expression on my face, completely wracked with the overwhelming desire to DO something but paralyzed by the sheer lack of anything to do within a 30 mile radius that didn’t involve some form of chemical consumption or lonely Mall browsing.)
Comment by ironzapatista from May 8, 2009 at 13:36
Here, have a ketjack: http://www.ubu.com/ethno/soundings/ketjack.html
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Comment by aenohe from May 8, 2009 at 13:59
:/
This just has not been your week.
On the upside: Vermont soon! Are you coming on the 14th? I hope to be packing and moving around then, but you’ll still have space.
I look forward to seeing you, and there’s always the little bear-poof and the scalp tingler. heh.
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Comment by rah_kun from May 8, 2009 at 14:13
Yes! Soon!
I am indeed coming on the 14th – if not the evening before, depending on my state of mind. I need to get the hell out of this hole.
However, you will have my willing, able, and bored arms, legs, and back to help you move and pack things.
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Comment by aenohe from May 8, 2009 at 14:17
Thanks! I wasn’t actually prodding for help, but I’d be happy to repay you in chocolate cookies, so some such deliciousness.
Also – those Toblerone that you gave to Kelly, the ones the size of my forearm, are INTENSE. Did you purchase them in the UK? I’ve never seen ones that size over here.
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Comment by rah_kun from May 8, 2009 at 14:19
Yes, I did indeed. Duty free (which is like shopping the internet in-person, I discovered. Largely obsolete). I had three in a bag; I was tempted to bludgeon random people in the terminal.
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Comment by aenohe from May 8, 2009 at 14:22
Haha!
“You there, frustrated woman taking out anger upon your child in this terminal! Take THIS!”
*WHACK!*
There you go, kid. Have some chocolate. It’s useful!
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Comment by always_going from May 8, 2009 at 15:32
It’s really heinous that you’re closer to New Haven than Hartford. We could be having awesome adventures instead of worrying about your Visa. Lame!
If you manage to get angry enough to leave the armpit of an armpit, Worcester welcomes you! but you knew that.
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Comment by rah_kun from May 8, 2009 at 17:02
It’s heinous that I’m in this state at all, really. It works out in the end, though – no rent or living expenses. Just a mental health tax.
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