A N N A J O H N ' S D I A R Y

March 3

Today, I experienced one of those rare moments when "Web 2.0" or whatever the fuck we're calling it this hour just dazzled the pants right off of me.  Of course a lack of pants facilitated this, but still.

If there's one thing writing for Sepia Mutiny has made me, it's PARANOID.  I'm always worried about using the wrong term, misspelling words or otherwise getting something wrong, because I'll hear about it within minutes from a reader or three who are just tickled to have proof that I'm an idiot. So I try and be careful, to the extant I can be.

But, I don't speak Hindi.  I know a little bit of Punjabi, but not that much.

I didn't know how to say "elephant".  This was important, because I wanted to gank a Tupac song's title for my post, but I needed it to rhyme.  I thought the word might be "hathi". I google defined it, and was given a wiki link, nothing more.  Hmmm.  On wiki, I saw tentative confirmation, but who trusts just wiki?? So I started to surf and the more I did, the more confusing it became.  So, I tweeted something about how at moments like this, I wished my Dad were still around and could anyone confirm that "hathi" means "elephant"? 

In minutes, I had over a dozen tweets, with alternate spellings, additional resources, double confirmations...everything.  I went from unsure to certain, in no time flat, because of the power of my hive. :)  It was mind-blowing to hit the "replies" tab, and see it refresh every few seconds with another response.  My followers are a phenomenal bunch.  And today, they helped me write the post I needed to, with the title I wanted, all along. :)  Behold, the power of Twitter, indeed.

March 1

I woke up for a less than pleasant reason (how joyous, to be female), but I guess all is well which ends well...by being up ASS early (read: 7am) I made sure I didn't miss church, which was key since Lent starts tomorrow.  Before you ask, because your college roommate's friend told you otherwise-- I'm Greek Orthodox.  Shit is almost always a week late, son.

Anyway, I was up, zombie-like, waiting for 10am.  I had more than enough time to walk around stiffly, looking for victims with fresh brains to consume AND get ready, but guess what?  I managed to get to church when I always do!  Slightly late!  See?  No point in waking up early.  Doesn't change a damned thing.

So. I put on a merino sweater dress and a thinsulate-lined wool coat, because I heard it would snow.  I am a vain wench however, because I refused to ruin my purty hair (see: previous entry) with a hat.  Once I realized that all my body heat would escape despite dressing warmly, I shrugged and gave up on finding opaque black tights.  I just wore boots, instead. Welcome, pneumonia! Come! Stay! Play!

Church is always weird, when I don't take communion.  I'm not as peaceful.  I feel like something's missing, the routine seems incomplete.  One of these days, I'll finish the HERstory post about this...

::

After church, while I walked up the street to find a cab, the snow began falling, via large, gloriously fluffy flakes.  No, I'm not over the magic of it yet.  Ten years after I experienced my first snow, I'm still enchanted with the stuff. I wasn't cold, so I took the long way uphill, just so I could enjoy it more. :)