| A guy named Alex came up with the bright idea of typing in your phone number as the color code. This icky green is what my phone number produces. We'll see what happens with other people's numbers.... |
Lately I’ve been frequenting journals on the web. I never knew they existed really, I just thought personal pages were limited to hokey pictures and too many links. Who knew? Anyway, I’ve stumbled across a whole culture of people who publish their daily stories on the web. I think it’s cool. I can’t stay away. I used to visit CNN and now I crawl into other people’s lives. I must be a voyeur. With any luck I’ll get paid to do that some day. For now, though, I’ve decided to try it myself. I don’t know about getting too personal though. Sometimes I read stuff people have written and I can’t believe they’ve bared it all for the world to read. I try to be more positive and think that maybe they are brave. The moderator in me finally decides they are free to do what they wish and it doesn’t bother me one way or another. Nevertheless, some things need to remain private I think. And, if I get tired of it, I’ll just delete the whole lot. In a worse case scenario, I can just move the whole site. Internet is cool.
So I’m hopping on this bandwagon, and I got so excited about it that I decided to put off washing the dishes, put off fixing my tangled mass of hair and go for broke. Never mind that the Toshi Gas person is supposed to come by today. I’m a little worried about that. They always come by when I’m not dressed, when I haven’t showered, when there are 3 days of dishes to be done, when the plant on the deck has finally given up the ghost and is a pot of sticks with a blanket of dried leaves surrounding it, and when there are way too many shoes in the shoe pit. I know Koreans get a kick out of that: Two people live in this house, but the shoe pit is always packed with grimy shoes.
I figure the Toshi Gas person has seen it all. I mean, they gotta go into everybody’s place to read the gas meter, so they see all kinds of weird stuff. But, I guarantee they’ll remember the white chick with the unkempt hair, the dead plant, the pile of dirty dishes, the gritty shoes, and the overflowing bag of recyclables. It’s embarrassing. Time is on my side for right now though. It’s only 10am and I doubt they’ll swing by this early. I may still have time to do the dishes. Heck, I might even cart down that huge bag of tin cans and plastic bottles. If only the trash outside wasn’t left in the sun to bake and become even more toxic. I hate taking down the trash.
So I’m starting this and I’ll be leaving for the States soon. I guess that’ll give me lots to talk about when I get back, eh? The couple of weeks right before the trip are awesome. I have tons of energy, I’m so excited, and I feel very motivated. If only it would last! Soon I will be in Seattle, giddy as can be, but then it will be over. I’ll be back here where my life is boring and there is nothing to do outside and I’ll slink back into that indolent rut I’ve inhabited the last year and a half. I’m a slacker by nature. Slackers unite! If only we could muster the energy to do so. Right now I’m exploiting this energy. This is the time when I get stuff done - except for maybe the dishes and the household crap that salary earners seem to think is so easy, but hate to do themselves. I’m not talking about the resident salary earner, just remembering the guy downstairs remarking to me in broken English that women’s lives are easy because they only have to do housework. Housework is physically harder than any job I’ve ever had. Really. Not only is it hard for someone who likes to use her brain, but it’s hard on the body too. I look around and see ajumas here who’ve "only" had to do housework all of their lives and I see twisted dry hands and feet. They are slumped over from all the kids they carried. They look tired. Their husbands look and smell pickled.
[Later]
The Toshi Gas person never came and to think that I got busy and did all the dishes and took out all those empty bottles and cans, not to mention taming my hair, just to avoid embarrassment when it was time for the gas meter to be checked.
Been thinking more about the journal idea. I’m glad to be writing again like this. Earlier this Spring I finished a whole book - a whole book! I had never done that before. I’d start writing in books, then stop writing. Years would pass and the book would be tossed or lost. But living in Korea has provided not only time, but enough challenge in my life that I needed an outlet. So I finally finished a whole book. Problem was, I didn’t have a new blank book to start again. Any blank book won’t do. It’s gotta have the right personality; the pages have to turn in just the right way, the cover and the feel of the pages must reflect me and/or my circumstances. Few things in Seoul fit me that well.
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