The Semi-Productive Weekend

I was so on the ball yesterday, despite a false start that included getting rained on on my way to the library and getting sweaty trying to wrest open the door to the AH lounge. I set up camp in the lounge with my laptop, so I wouldn't have to be chained to one of the desktops in the offices. Peace and quiet all day, plus snacks and Pellegrino left over from last week's meeting, makes for a productive me. Today, however, despite getting up at 9am, I've had such difficulty getting myself down to task. The goal I set for myself was to get through Bergamo negli anni di Lotto, but hours later, I'm on page 27. Granted, this is a huge folio book, and I'm both translating and taking notes on it, but that is still just not an acceptable rate of progress. I should have gone to school again today, but I stayed home in my pajamas, bundled up in like four layers because it's suddenly gotten cold again--a cold that Phyllis doesn't feel, apparently, because she regarded me like a crazy person when I appeared in the kitchen at 5pm in a bathrobe with cravat-style scarf around my neck.

I'm also facing a dilemma right now in terms of my cell phone. My battery has become completely unreliable, and I can't have a conversation for more then 20-30 minutes without it needing to be recharged. It's more than two years old, so I'm eligible to get a new phone free from Verizon, but they no longer carry the Chocolate as an option, and therein lies the rub: I love my phone! It's exactly as slender and uncomplicated a phone as I could ever want. I do not want a faux-iPhone, faux-Sidekick, faux-Blackberry, or any of the other overly-buttoned models that they have on offer. A new battery costs $25, but the phone itself is beginning to show the wear and tear of its age, and I'm torn between getting a new battery to prolong its life, or just sucking it up and getting used to something newer. Another consideration that leads me toward keeping the Chocolate are my photos; I have 170 of them, and since I don't subscribe to the internet on my phone, I can't offload them. Yes, eventually when this phone dies for good, they'll be lost, but I'm somewhat loathe to discard my Chocolate before its time. (Also, its name is Chocolate. Unless they have a phone called "Smartfood Popcorn" or "Diet Coke," this rules).