my glamorous life
episodes & recollections
#63 day in the life
Midnight. Update A List Apart and Zeldman.com. Finish switching over to new DSL provider. Switch works perfectly, except for a mail problem: can receive but not send mail.
8:00 a.m. Using cheesy web-based mail service, write to ISP requesting help with SMTP mail problem.
11:00 a.m. Phone conference with Warner Bros. client regarding first-round designs for movie site.
12:55 p.m. A List Apart’s server goes down.
1:10 p.m. Stagger out of elevator with pile of ex-girlfriend’s possessions. New building Super introduces himself by saying, “You should have used the service elevator.”
1:15 p.m. Unable to flag a cab due to giant dumpster and truck in front of building. Chinese fire drill running possessions down to Lexington Avenue. Decorative screen breaks in the process, smashing into seven pieces. I leave them on the street.
1:20 p.m. Smiling taxi driver doubts ex-girlfriend’s possessions will fit in his cab.
1:23 p.m. Possessions fully lodged in cab.
1:28 p.m. Traffic barely moving due to blocking of Fifth Avenue for police and fire department funerals. Car behind us slams into cab. Car driver laughs apologetically as cab driver checks for damage. Finds none.
1:40 p.m. Arrive ex-girlfriend’s new apartment. Call her on cell phone, get her answering machine, formerly my answering machine.
1:45 p.m. Admiring ex-girlfriend’s new apartment in tranquil 1920s deco building. Cats mosey into vestibule. Bat Head remembers me, rubs his head against my palm, follows me from room to room. ‘Tipi’ has forgotten me, darts under furniture when I approach.
2:30 p.m. Exploring Lower East Side neighborhood with ex-girlfriend. Bakery, candy store, church, museum.
3:45 p.m. Back uptown. Phone call from W3C re: Microsoft’s blocking of non-Microsoft browsers at MSN.com. Phone call from New York Times reporter re: Microsoft’s blocking of non-Microsoft browsers at MSN.com. A List Apart back online.
5:50 p.m. PDN conference organizer sends me urgent email.
5:55 p.m. Figure out solution to email problem. Send first message of the day. Subject line: “Test.”
6:00 p.m. Write to ISP sysadmin, telling him “not to worry” about email problem. Not that he had.
6:30 p.m. Smoking, listening to constant police sirens outside window. I think of them as bosun’s whistles, the constant roar of traffic as the pounding of the sea.