Monday, August 2, 2010

No one's alone with videophone.








You may be one of those people who bitch and moan about the future (being now, 2010) is lame. You wanted a hover board and robot slaves. You wanted a machine that would dress you, shave you, and feed you breakfast. I may not have a hover board - and nothing shaves my legs for me - but I've got Skype.

I came stumbling in right before dawn today after another sleazy night downtown. I plopped down on the dirty couch - the silence of an empty room was pressing me down and spinning my head. You know how it is when you've been out with people all night - loud bars and laughing and yelling. When it's all over and I start to come down - it feels like falling down stairs over and over in my brain - like an Escher staircase of drunken doom. I tried to play guitar. I failed. I tried to read - it made me sick. I could not watch tv. Sometimes the buzz of the tv itself is enough to make me anxious. I was not tired and I turned on some Japanther and stared at the wall - starting to feel like the last person alive. Then my computer rang.


One thing about drinking on Skype is that you will want to hug the far-away-friend you are talking to. And you can't. But you can: show each other cool stuff in your apartments, play guitar, and look at each others cats.




Living in Muncie,Indiana - I've had a lot of good friends move to bigger cities. Just recently we lost Peter Gaunt to Austin, TX. I have no doubt that it is a good thing - but that thought doesn't help when you miss your pal late at night.




It does help when a rad pal rings you on videophone when you're drunk and lonely. We had a pretty good time and even thought I couldn't hug him - I felt like I got to hang out with my pal. I love the future.