Back to the future

Maybe it was the Celtics-Lakers final, maybe it was (thankfully) missing my 20th high school reunion, or maybe it's just my inability to keep up with all the IPhoning, Facebooking, Twittering and Plurking technology, but lately, I've been getting kind of wistful with the idea of finding a manual typewriter and a turntable and locking myself up back in the 1970s somewhere. I know that if I did make this fantasy a reality, it would last for about two weeks before I realized why technology, maddening as it can be, has moved us forward. After all, it can be damn hard to e-mail, blog, or hell, even cut and paste with a Smith Corona (unless you actually, you know, use scissors and paste). And vinyl records are notorouisly hard to play in cars and even in the best of situations, you have to flip the darn things over every 20 minutes.

Still...

There's something to be said for the sensory experience of holding a vinyl album or watching it spin around and around (BB EC would love that) on the turntable. Or clacking away on typewriter keys late into the night, feeding individual pieces of paper into the machine, crumpling up bad drafts and tossing them into the trash barrel. In both instances, it feels like we've sacrificed something material for convenience. When you listen to a record, there is something there, when you finish typing, there is physical evidence of your work. With mp3s and computer files, it's just a bunch of blips and numbers that we trust in the machines to save and keep safe for us.

Which all sounds nice, but if I did lose my iBook, I'd be pretty damned depressed.

Reunion

There haven't been a lot of updates from the world of EC lately, so it might seem odd that I'm suing this opportunity to write about something I didn't do, rather than something I did do.It was tough, but I managed to avoid my 20th high school reunion. Normally, avoiding a high school reunion is not such a tough thing for me to do, since I see, or at least have some type of contact with, everyone I graduated with that I care to keep in touch with on occasion, and it doesn't cost me $120 to eat appetizers and listen to music I hated the first time around played very loudly by an obnoxious DJ. But this year, I almost made it, mainly because my best friend was driving out from Oregon with his family to attend and had offered to stay at my house, since I live in the same town where the reunion was to take place. Unfortunately, (for the most part), Mrs. E.C. got sick near the date of the reunion, and that was the final push for me to stay home.

"Oh no, honey, you're under the weather, we must not risk venturing out of the house and having your condition worsen, which is a distinct possibility if you are exposed to bad 80s music and a bunch of people I didn't care for too much 20 years ago," I told her.
Mrs. EC, who usually doesn't put up with too much of my BS, was happy to stay home and recuperate on this occasion, since she was probably even more averse to attending the fiasco than I was.

Fortunately, I did get to see my best friend and his family. While he did make it to the reunion and didn't have a horrible time, he didn't exactly leave me kicking myself that I had missed out on the fun. For the time being, I'm trying to arrange a get-together with a few of my other friends from the class of 88 who somehow, someway, like me, found a way to avoid the reunion. When we do get together, I can guarantee that there will be no drunken singalongs to 'Living on a Prayer.'

If that does happen, I will have to seriously reevaluate some 30-year friendships.

How about that

Hello...

Is this thing still on?

[tap, tap, clears throat]

So yeah, it's been a while. How you doing?

Since we last met, I got promoted at work, moved and have begun to experience the wonders of a toddler who has discovered that he can run very fast, if not so steadily, while carrying large wooden spoons.

And whether you like it or not, I promise to be back a little sooner with some more inane patter.