12/22/00

This is the first entry written on my new G4. I just got it today, and I've been playing with it ever since. The computer itself isn't so different from my two-and-a-half year old G3 I've been using. It does have a built-in modem, which frees up an extra USB port. It's a little bit faster, and since it's a tower instead of a desktop, I've been able to free up a lot of space on my desk. The new keyboard and mouse do work much better than my old ones. But the real difference is the new 17" monitor. My previous monitor was a dusty, clay-colored 15" thing I'd bought when I got my first Mac back in 1994. This one is much better.

Jay came over today and helped me set up my new machine. We'd also planned to go see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," but by the time we got there (4 p.m.) all the shows for the rest of the day were sold out. I guess I'll see it when I get back to town, because the airport shuttle is coming for me at 10:15 tomorrow morning. Before then, I have to go for my long run (which will probably take about 90 minutes) and I have to do some stuff at work, so I'm getting up really early in the morning. I haven't been running as much as I'd like in the past week or so, but I am getting faster. This week I ran four miles in under 32 minutes, a goal I'd been aiming towards for the last month or so.

Anyway, I'm really tired right now, and I'm writing this entry not because I feel inspired to write, but rather because I don't anticipate having the chance or the urge to write anything while I'm in Massachusetts. I'm only going to be home until the 28th, so it's going to be kind of a whirlwind trip. I was home for Thanksgiving, so I figure my family can't have changed much since then, and I figure this way, I'll feel better about maybe taking some time off in the spring to go to New York and next summer to see my Grandparents in Pennsylvania. I haven't seen them in almost two years. At least on this trip home, I'll actually get to see some of my high school friends because I actually had time to e-mail them all in advance and make some plans to get together. I'd been meaning to do this at Thanksgiving, but then I didn't get around to it and then when I was at home, I wasn't in the mood to call everyone's parents' house and see who was around. I actually really hate calling people anyway. I've always hated the phone.

I guess it's somewhat unusual to still be in touch with one's high school friends more than 11 years after graduation, but I think when you grow up in a small town, it's not so weird. I went to school with pretty much the same people for 15 years if you count nursery school and kindergarten. After 15 years, you tend to form a pretty strong bond with people, even if you don't really want to. And also, unlike many people I've talked to, I still have a lot in common with my high school friends. For the most part, they're all living in major cities, working in professional jobs or going to graduate school, unmarried, with similar political and social views to my own. I'm not sure if this can be attributed to the relative homogeneity of our home town or to those 15 years of common experiences.

In other news, I went to the dentist this week. The last time I went, I had a horrible experience, and decided that I was never going back to that dentist ever again. A few readers wrote in to recommend dentists in the area, and I picked one and made an appointment. Strangely, as it turns out, this dentist is also Joy Rothke's dentist, so clearly this woman is the dentist of choice for San Francisco online diary readers. Anyway, she was very good--I could barely feel it when she was scaling my teeth (which was a torturous experience at the old place). The only weird thing about this place was that when they polished my teeth, instead of letting me rinse my mouth with a cup of water and then spitting into a sink, they squirted the water in my mouth with a little water-squirter thing, had me swish it around, and then they sucked it out with the little vacuum thingy. It's not easy to swish water around your mouth when you're in a recumbent position, and I was scared I was going to swallow it or choke on it or something.

Anyway, last night, I had dinner with Phil, and I was telling him this, and then he told me that he'd recently gone to the dentist's for the first time in five years. But the really crazy thing was that the dentist offered him nitrous oxide just for the cleaning, and he took it! I've never heard of such a thing.

I probably won't write until I get back, and then I'll probably be frantically preparing for my New Year's party. Have a happy last week of December.