A Conversation with Elizabeth
1999
At Work

From:          Elizabeth 
To:            LMixson@PEC.com
Sent:          Monday, December 27, 1999 9:29 AM
Subject:       At Work
 
I'm at work, but I think you are still enjoying vacation.  How did Christmas go?  I worked Friday, even though I did not have to, but I took advantage of being here to invite a friend for lunch.  We have been trying to establish a habit of going out for breakfast on Christmas and lunch on Thanksgiving, because she is single as well and doesn't spend time with family, but I've found myself resisting it somewhat this year, so I pre-empted it with lunch on Christmas eve.  Mostly on Fri. all I did was clean out my office, tossing as much stuff as possible.  I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to, because I also wanted to do some personal typing, because my friend ended up staying almost until three, but I guess I didn't blatantly discourage her from staying.  Christmas Day I just spent at home, alone, with some reading in the a.m., but I also got interested in watching the Planet of the Apes series which one of the stations was showing.  It started with the original Planet of the Apes and then showed all the others as well. I actually enjoyed watching them all in sequence, but I made myself get up during every commercial and "do something" around the apartment--otherwise I would have been sitting all day in front of the t.v.--and believe me there were plenty of LONG commercials. I had a couple of presents to open, one from my "lunch" friend and another from a co-worker, so I saved those until Christmas evening. Did you get the book I mentioned?  I am really enjoying it, although the prologue made me wonder, as it felt awkwardly written.  It is full of computer stuff, only a little of which I understand, but it also has some interesting Mayan mythology. It made me identify though, that what I don't "like" about computers is I just don't understand them.  I understand binary switches, on-off, but I just don't understand how that gets translated into all that it gets translated into.  One of the main characters does all sorts of things with her laptop, but I kept feeling I did not understand how it was done.  The book is not so technical to be a turn-off though.  The mall was closed Christmas, so I did not walk then, but it opened back up bright and early Sunday.  Sunday evening I watched an early showing of Star Wars on t.v., since I had not re-watched it in a while.  It certainly holds up well, although Harrison Ford certainly looks young.  I was in a pretty good mood most of Christmas, despite being mostly alone and un-involved in any festivities.  Getting involved in the walking, I think, really helped.  It is the best plan I've come up with so far, but I have to make certain I get to bed early.  Also, finding something on t.v. that caught my interest helped, and also a relatively interesting book. 
 
Also, it was extremely COLD on Christmas, colder than it has been all year, so I had no motivation to go out.  For a while, reading that book made me want "to learn" computers, but I'm not certain what exactly I would want to learn.  Hackers fascinate me, and I've read several books on them, but I've never really understood how they do what they do.  Elizabeth

2000 Almost