Day 13 (Saturday)

Painted at #1GF!’s mom’s house for the second day in a row and still didn’t finish. I am, how you say, a sucky painter.

From there we headed to my parents’ house to set up their new PC. The only thing we ended up getting done was starting a data transfer between their old PC and their new one.

Day 14 (Father’s Day)

I was chartered with the simple task of bringing over scones for my dad on Father’s Day. I had no idea what a bitch it is to find an Irish Breakfast brick on a Sunday morning. After finally finding what amounted to a small, crappy batch of scones at a local market, a woman pulled up in an Infiniti and yelled at me as I walked out…

Woman: Jonathan!
Me: Hey? (what the…)
Woman: How are you?
Me: Goooood. (Fuck, I think she might be one of my cousins.)
Woman: You don’t recognize me? [takes off sunglasses]
Me: No. (Shit. I think she’s definitely one of my cousins and I’m never going to remember her name. I’m an ass. Maybe I’ll just stand here smiling like a dope.)
Woman: It’s me, Karen.
Me: Wow! Karen! How are you? (Whew. She is not a cousin and I haven’t seen her in 15 years. Non-recognition excusable.)
Karen: I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me.
Me: I haven’t seen you in 15 years and you’re in this fancy car!
Karen: I can’t believe it. You look exactly the same.

And then we talked for three minutes before she had to get something in the market for her husband and three kids. As quickly as she flew in, she was gone.

Now even though she picked me out of a crowd from a moving car while I was wearing sunglasses after not seeing or hearing from me in over fifteen years, I wasn’t really accepting of the idea that I looked exactly the same as I did when I was 18. Fortunately, there was no time to discuss it because I had scones to deliver.

From there we ran over to my parents and gave my Dad a Nintendo DS Lite and Mario Kart for Father’s day. I don’t know when every holiday became like Christmas, but it was worth every penny to listen to my retired parents competing for hours while #1GF! and I set up their new PC.

We spent about three hours backing up mail, transferring data, and stripping off useless pre-installed programs, when my Dad took a break from his gaming and popped in to check on us. After giving him the rundown on all the new stuff that his dual core, Vista box could do, he said, “That’s really cool, but how do we play the game?” After a small inquisition, I came to find out that the game was Jewel Quest, an addictive, but adware supported flash game that they had downloaded on their old PC.

I tried to avoid the issue, but ended up having to install it on their pristine new PC because it was one of the three things that they use the web for: web surfing, e-mail, and Jewel Quest. I also had to laugh. I spent hours prepping a PC for the main purpose of getting adware to run faster. I felt like I was going against some geek moral code, but it was Father’s Day and there was nothing I could do.

By 6 PM or so, I was happy to eat leftover Chinese food with #1GF! for an uneventful and relaxing few hours before going to bed.

While laying there in the dark…

Me: [out of the blue] Sure I was wearing sneakers, cargo shorts and a band t-shirt, and maybe my haircut and sunglass choices haven’t changed since I was a teenager, and maybe I’m pretty much the same build, but I don’t think I look the same.
#1GF!: What?
Me: Today. Karen. I don’t look the same. I mean, I have bigger bags under my eyes for one thing. And my hairline is back at least an inch from 15 years ago.
#1GF!: [silence and grinning]
Me: Oh, I can hear the way you’re looking at me. Fine. I’m the same then. Look at me. I’m the same. I’m 18. bah.
#1GF!: You are a funny, funny man.

Posted in Leisure