One Minute It’s Gossip Girl, the Next….
Briiinnng! BRiiinnnnng!
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Yeah, Mom, what’s up?”
“Where will we eat for Thanksgiving?”
“Well, I never heard back from you about any of my emails, so nowhere. It’s too late now!”
“Should we go to Minado or Chinatown?’
“I don’t know.”
“Chinatown is good but so far away. Maybe Minado. Or Chinatown?”
“I don’t care…neither one has turkey, and I wanted to eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day.”
“Minado will have turkey, maybe.”
“TURKEY SUSHI?!? Well, I guess if we don’t know what time Auntie will arrive, Minado’s better so we can just show up to the restaurant when they arrive. They’re going to hit traffic.”
“We still have to make reservations, even at Minado. Can you call and make reservations? Twelve people. Six o’ clock! Then we bring the kids to dinner and they go home to your house after dinner.”
“Why can’t you call and make the reservations? And why six? That’s so late! What will all the kids do at your house the whole afternoon?”
“I don’t know, just something.”
“Why not 5:30?”
“Well, we don’t know what time Auntie will arrive, so can you call? Twelve people, six o’ clock?”
“Why don’t you want to call?”
“You speak English better!”
“But they don’t! You can talk to them! They’re Asian!”
“No, they’re not Asian. They’re Korean.”
“KOREAN IS ASIAN, MOM!!”
“Well, anyway you speak better.”
“Fine!”
(A few minutes later)
“Hello?”
“Hi Dad. Just tell Mom the reservations at Minado are all set. Twelve people, six o’ clock.”
“Six! Why so late? What we gonna do all day?”
“That’s what I asked Mom!”
“You better talk her.”
“Hello?”
“Hi Mom, the reservations are all set. Twelve people, six o’ clock, under the name Jane. And by the way, they don’t speak English that well, either.”
“Six? I thought you were going to book 5:30?”
“You never agreed to 5:30!!”
“Yes, I did, didn’t I?”
“NO. DO YOU WANT ME TO CALL THEM BACK?”
“Well, I guess forget it, just do six. Wait, Daddy want to talk to you again.”
“Jane.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“My send button gone, only can forward! I push forward but nothing happen.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Earthlink so stupid, no send button!”
“Are you trying to write an email?”
“Yes, I ty to send Alice my schedule to confirm trip.”
“Maybe you should send it to me, too, so I know when I’m supposed to drive you to the airport.”
“Okay, fine, but not working. I keep pushing forward and nothing show up, I try to forward Mom but she doesn’t get it.”
“Did you try sending it to another address?”
“I push forward, nothing happen.”
“I mean, try emailing it to me.”
“But I’m still writing message, not final yet.”
“JUST SEND ME ANYTHING, just write test on it.”
“Okay…to Jane…now no send button.”
“Are you using Microsoft Outlook or webmail?”
“What you mean?”
“Outlook — are you using Outlook? Or what URL, web site, are you looking at?”
“HTML.”
“You mean http? But what’s the web site?”
“Just html!”
“Okay, how are you writing the email?”
“Microsoft.”
“THAT’S WHAT I ALREADY ASKED YOU. Microsoft Outlook. So what’s wrong?”
“I see file, edit, view, insert, format, tools, action…usually action show send, but now only forward!”
“You don’t see a bunch of buttons like Send, Accounts…”
“No, I have file, edit, view, insert…”
“Okay, listen. I think you must have hit something and removed the toolbar. Right click to the side of where it says Help…”
“I didn’t change anything! I didn’t touch anything! I have no bar.”
“Well, something happened! Try right-clicking in the blue bar, where it says file, edit, view…”
“One second, Mom using computer. I let you talk her.”
“Mom?”
“Font, bold, italics…”
“What are you doing, Mom?”
“Oh, I thought maybe try right-clicking, but it just gives me font, bold, italics…”
“Where are you right-clicking, Mom?”
“In the box.”
“Okay. Do you see something that says “tools”?
“Yes, then Actions, and usually Action have Send but now it’s not there.”
“Go to tools, and hit customize. Then click on the tab that says toolbars.”
“Tools, customize. Font, bold, italics…”
“What did you do? You want the tab that says toolbars. Did you go to Tools, and then pick Customize?”
“Of course! Tools, customize…oh, you want toolbars?”
“YES. Do you see something that says standard?”
“OH, that need to be checked off?”
“YES.”
“Oh, now it’s all back!”
“Dad must have hit something. He said he didn’t, but this doesn’t change on its own.”
(In background, “I change nothing!”)
“Mom, you know why we want you and Dad to live with us? It’s for our own benefit, so we don’t get ULCERS trying to talk to you on the phone.”
Posted by: ssjane | November 20, 2007 | 9:21 pm
Posted in: This Life