Scribbler's Cafe

Oh yes, I am back

I just returned to Japan from my visit home and when I plugged in my laptop, my internet connection did not work. Horror! My connection is crucial. It can be truly isolating and frustrating when you don't have access at home - especially when you need to cross oceans to find local community that understands those strange sounds coming out of your mouth (fingers?).

I rechecked my bills to make sure it was paid. It was. (Mad props to Matt for taking care of those things while I was gone.) I tried again and again to connect clicking around in all sorts of places I've never been before. Because of the language barrier, I couldn't just call up tech support and ask what was up. I’d gone two days without access and was terrified that I wouldn't be able to get it to work again. I cursed my low Japanese skills and ran through the list of Japanese speakers I felt comfortable enough to intrude upon to help me out with this mundane task.

Then, just before I was about to ask my overly busy and stressed boss to spend his precious free afternoon on the phone with the internet company at my house, I decided to try one more time. I noticed the lights on my router were not blinking like usual. They weren't on at all. Wait a minute is the plug.....?

Yep. I just needed to push the plug back into the wall.

Oh my.

To the dear friends I didn't manage to see while I was back in the U.S. - please forgive me. It's amazing how little I was actually able to accomplish on my long vacation. Such is the busy madness of a limited trip back home. I'll be back again in a year (so goes the plan) with much more time on my hands and promise to make it up.

posted by Scribbler @ Friday, August 26, 2005