Note: Something happened to my laptop before the long weekend, and I had to have it reformatted to make it run faster. I was initially worried that the reformatting and repair will continue through the long weekend, depriving me of my precious sci-fi movie time. Hence this little entry dated August 17, 2012.
My laptop is in the repair shop as I write this, and I have no idea when I'll get it back and how much it's going to cost me. I shudder at having to pay thousands of pesos, and I'm hoping against hope that my wallet won't be burned that much.
Too bad, it's a long weekend and I have been looking forward to watching all episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings. Most of them, unfortunately, are stored in m laptop, so chances of watching them are now nil.
It is comforting, however, that I'd bought several books earlier this week because they were on sale in Booksale. There's all three volumes of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, a novel entitled Piano Lessons, and a really geeky book on organic synthesis using the disconnection approach. Why I bought the geeky book, I have no idea. Professional curiosity perhaps. Anyway, these five books cost less than PhP600, very reasonable compared to brand-new ones which cost twice the amount I'd paid for in Booksale.
Seeing all these books on my desk makes me want to grab one, head out to the nearest coffee shop and immerse myself in the pages while sipping a cup of overpriced coffee and munching overpriced pastries. I used to do that when I was a freshman in graduate school. Strawberry Cheesecake - a classmate in one of my graduate courses back then - and I would stay at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf from about nine in the morning to a quarter of an hour before class. We would then dash out of Robinson's Place and into Salcedo Hall, where biochem lectures are held. I guess it was also during these coffee-book-and-talks moment that fell head-over-heels in love with him. I still am, but I'll save the gory details for another entry.
In a way, it feels nostalgic and comforting to be holding an actual book and turning actual pages instead of just opening a file and using a mouse or touchpad to navigate the pages. It's as if I'm transported to my childhood, a time when laptops, e-books and wi-fi were unheard-of. A time when I preferred reading to playing with the neighborhood kids, and fancied myself to be one of the Hardy Boys and their friends. A time when I would go to a real music store to buy a particular piano piece or a music book, instead of just googling it and downloading the file to my sheet music folder.
Perhaps this momentary absence of my laptop will help me reconnect with my old-school side. I've almost forgotten the thrill of lying in bed, head propped by pillows, while engrossed in the chapters of a book. Or the coziness of savoring each page, eating Chips Ahoy dunked in cold milk and being wrapped in a blanket while listening to the sound of raindrops during rainy days. Thinking about these things doesn't make the absence of my laptop horrible. On the contrary, it helps activate my long-dormant neurons.
Oh well, back to basics. For now.
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