As Summer Ends

26 SEP 06

Still another summer has spilled from my hands as a precarious pile of plates that topples to the floor. I gaze at the ruin, and wonder what wonderful opportunities were missed.

Thus ends my alliterative appreciation to the Summer of ’06.

***

I am a geek. I’ve always been a geek. My guess is that many of my poker comrades are also geeks. It is with this understanding that I’m sure you will appreciate the following anecdote.

I need a new cell phone (or mobile phone, or whatever the kids are calling them these days). As I walk into the T-Mobile store, I am greeted by a stunning blonde 19 year old who starts to smile at me (you know that smile – it’s the, “I know I’m cute smile.” It’s the smile that says, “You will buy whatever I tell you to buy because I’m who I am and you’re who you are smile.”)

But just as the smile touches the corners of her mouth, it turns into a hand over the mouth giggle as she points at my groin.

It’s 1984 all over again. I thought I was past young women pointing at my penis and laughing, dammit!

But wait. I still have my pants on, so it can’t be that. No, she is pointing at my belt. The source of her giggles – my pager.

“You still have a pager?” She asks, incredulously. “How cute!”

Would it be inappropriate to start crying in a T-Mobile store? I’m not sure about the etiquette here.

Instead, I half listen as she recovers enough to tell me about the latest Samsung model that has passed the “vault test,” whatever that is.

I didn’t buy the phone. I’m calling it a victory.