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portrait of an internet addict
Me at 6am getting ready to publish this blog. I got up this morning at 3:30am. Yes, for those who’ve not heard the news we finally got the internet installed at the rental house! Yes, congratulations are in order or are they? I’m thrilled to be able to communicate again but it’s like giving a drug to a former addict. Having so much input at your fingertips is dangerous when you’ve essentially been denied it for 4 months.
The internet was installed in the house on Friday, May 12th. I sent out an immediate email to close family members about the news only to discover once the computer was turned off the internet didn’t work anymore. Thinking it was weather related I waited patiently for the rain to stop and tried again later that evening, no luck. Ok, maybe the problem was something I could fix. At 2am I returned to the computer and after going thru everything I could possibly think of I realized the computer wasn’t connecting with the IP address *&)!
I found a number for ICE at 6am Saturday morning and learned they opened on Sat. at 8am I knew what the problem was, I needed someone to give me the correct IP address. I’ve fixed this problem before in my
Bill at 3:30am
Bill wakes early and gets up to read. Today...the Tico Times most days John D.MacDonald novels. Thanks Donna! former life. I had the knowledge but not the key to unlock the gateway. At 8:01 I began my calls to ICE. By 9:30, four customer service representatives later and many promises that someone would be with me in just a moment I lost it. Why couldn’t they understand me? I called my good friend, Karol in desperation and begged her to call ICE for me and ask a technician to come to the house. She called back shortly assuring me ICE was sending a tech. No one came.
Monday morning I literally ran to greet our landlord as he arrived at 6:16am and begging him to have his wife call ICE for me. The phone line is in her name so I figured my attempts on Saturday were futile as I was not the owner of the line. There had to be some reason, right? Wednesday, he asked about the internet. I said ICE hadn’t come yet. He called his wife and twenty-minutes later called me and said something about it. Edgar speaks very fast, even the ticos have a hard time understanding him. I had no idea what he said.
On Saturday Edgar and his family
Landlord and Family
Edgar, Solange and Eryuan. came over for a visit and stayed for dinner. His wife asked how the internet was. I wanted to scream but calmly told her we hadn’t seen ICE so it still didn’t work. She shot Edgar the evil eye, you wives know the look… then asked him if he’d told me to go to ICE. WHAT? Apparently, I was supposed to go and order a technician to come to the house. @* Solange, Edgars wife (yes, that’s her name pronounced (Sol-on-gee) had added my name to the account so I could deal directly with them. That’s what Edgar said when he called me on Wednesday.
Monday morning 8:01am we were at the ICE office. Luckily we got a man we’d spoken to previously who knew Solange. He said someone would be out Tuesday, sometime. We went to the movie store and stocked up on flicks to keep me distracted for another 24 hours. Around 4pm that afternoon a technician from ICE arrived. One that spoke English to boot!
After 45 minutes of reconfiguring their modem the internet worked. I didn’t want to let him leave for fear I was dreaming. I got all the access codes and had
Callista waking up
Callista used to wake up and look outside for me. Now I'm in the office in the madrugada (early morning). him turn my computer off and on 10 times before letting him leave. We had internet. I was still afraid it wouldn’t work the next day so I hesitated to tell anyone. I spent the rest of the evening mindlessly surfing, performing endless searches for unimportant things just because I could.
Tuesday I woke at 2am to ‘test’ the internet. IT WORKED! It was a very bad day for home schooling that day. My focus was not on Callista but rather on how soon I could get done and get back online. The computer is in the classroom. It was taunting me. School got out early that day.
Our evenings here are spent watching a television program we all agreed on. Wednesday and Thursday evenings had turned into American Idol nights. We make our predictions and see who’s right. Our programming is a week behind here so we’re waiting to see who won. Well, were waiting. The internet took away the suspense. I didn’t join the family for the last elimination round as I had already read about it on the internet. It’s not exciting anymore. Congrats Taylor but rock-n-roll Chris was our choice. We, I have a
5am view from our patio
No two days hold the same views to the rear of our house. theory on the whole conspiracy but that’s another blog.
Thursday night I realized the downside of my addiction. I had reconnected with family and friends online and even made new ones but I was shutting my family out. I walked thru the house on a snack run from the computer and saw Callista watching TV in the living room and Bill reading in the bedroom. I’d only had the internet for three days and my family is turning back into the family it was in the states. All of us doing our own thing, no one connected.
Friday during school time it was very tense as the computer still called me. I was impatient with Callista while trying to teach her a new concept. The light went off in my head and I decided to ease the tension and look for help online. It didn’t take long before we found information online to explain the concepts as well as practice exercises in other areas. I got to be online and she got to benefit as well. The internet will be helpful with school.
Bill has joined me online as well. Yesterday afternoon we accessed our bank accounts and balanced the check book for the first time in four months. He also discovered he can check the NBA scores online up to the minute instead of having to wait for them to scroll thru on ESPN 2. GO SUNS! He had me searching for a live feed last night for the Suns game but with 2 minutes to go it was a mute point. If anyone knows the links to live feeds please forward them.
The bottom line is, yes, I am an internet addict. Once an addict, always an addict. I will need to work at finding a balance between my computer time, family time and time to sleep. We can use the internet to enhance our lives here in many ways, together. There are times when it’s good for us to all be doing our own things but I don’t want to lose that intangible, indescribable thing we’ve found as a family here.
Pura Vida!
Jen, Bill, Callista and Bear
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