Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Guess why I am drinking Prosecco (this time)?

Remember 1997? In 1997 we connected to the internet via the 486 in the basement, through some service called Freenet. It brought you the whole internet, which back then was written in yellow courier font on a blue background and didn't contain any pictures. Email was composed in something called Pine, which would get really fucked up if you put the cursor on the wrong part of the screen. I used to email my dad at work, because he was the only person I knew with an email address. In 1997, the only person I knew with a cell phone was the cook I worked with at Smitty's who dealt pot out the back door (it would be three years before I got one). I bought new music on CDs, but my favourite things to listen to were still the mixtapes friends and I had made for each other. Even though punk was dead (like princess Diana!). Speaking of which, my friend and I travelled through London and Brussels and Amsterdam and Paris. We didn't have credit cards (they do not give credit cards to minors) so we just started out with about $1000 each in our pockets and just worked our way down to zero (and then to the kindness of strangers, and then to a Western Union in the deuxième arrondissement). We lost a lot of money on currency exchange, since back then they hadn't yet invented the Euro. Back then I had spiky lesbian hair.

Anyway, 1997 was the year I took my first university class, and today I took my last.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to go have a drink too. I feel like celebrating.
Love
Mom

Kate and/or Mike said...

Aw! I was just thinking yesterday about that day, my first semester on campus, when I was walking to class and you called out my name. It was almost mythological - Marianne and myself at the same institution? Of course, that was my first year there and your last. Still, it's funny to remember that we ever crossed paths like that, what with your long history of schooling. I guess that means I've been on campus a long time too. And my last class will be coming up soon enough. Although, truthfully, I wager I'll find myself back on campus again someday. But don't worry, Dad, I'll be 100% self-funded next time.

Anonymous said...

Right after typing that Kate joined me for a glass of wine. That's the last thing either of us remember.

Christian said...

Summbitch! No more learnin'? How's you sposed to get any smrter?

Phil said...

You'll keep going to University classes, though, right? Just standing on the other side of the room?

Also, have you found your apartment here:
http://www.richardhowe.net/zMSC/index-msc.html

Aaron, Kate, Will and Wyatt said...

And now you a whole bunch of damn sexy letters behind your name and I will continue to live vicariously through you and get my ass beaten at cards. When are we on again baby? Time to celebrate!