My Partner in time

What object describes me?

On my tenth birthday, I had wanted a sports watch. I don’t know where the idea came to me to want a sports watch. I just know that I wanted one at the time. So then I got one from Tito Albert and Tita Celia. Tita Celia worked in the jewelry department of Macy’s, I think, so she was able to buy one for me. I was so excited when I got it! I think it still had the price on it. It was 60 dollars! Sixty dollars to make a ten year old girl smile. About a year after that, I lent my watch to someone for one day and that day my watch broke. It wouldn’t say the time or do other functions. Angry? Of course I was. I was furious! Already you can see how much my watch was beginning to mean to me. I didn’t talk to that person for the rest of that day and I blame that person for the breaking of my watch, even to this day. Except that I don’t hate that person anymore. The hate left, but I still point my finger at her.

Anyway, that meant that I had to get a new watch. Who knew that it would be this new watch that I would have for the next 11 years, come this November? My parents bought me a new watch – that new watch I was just talking about – when I was 11. In addition to that, they bought one for Steph and Ate Sherry. I don’t know what they did with their’s buy I kept mine and still have it right now as I speak. I mean write. Technically type.

Therefore I nominate my wrist buddy who has been with me for at least half my life as the object that would describe me.

Watches move on and so do I (and so does mostly everybody else). Over the past few years I’ve changed, chiefly because I had to because it was required for college and chiefly because I was egged on to by other people and chiefly because I wanted to – because my mind changes and as it changes so do my desires. But I’ll save that for another blog. So I’ve changed over the past few years – computer wise. I didn’t used to have an email. But then I got a yahoo email account. And for the first year of college I used that. But then one seemingly ordinary day, as I was on the library computer at school, I was “invited to chat to Ate Sherry on gmail.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time honestly, but I saw Ate Sherry’s name and I got excited. It said that I first had to create a gmail account. Honestly again, I didn’t know what that meant, but I created one anyway. The next thing I knew, I was chatting with Ate Sherry and she was just as surprised as I was that I did that. That was the first change.

Then there was youtube. Simply put, Steph taught me how to create my own account and make playlists. Once I learned of this ability – to create playlists, I started making one of Jason Mraz right away. Eventually that first playlist grew into 17 playlists, with one of them containing 51 videos. My playlists mostly consists of live versions of songs that I love (either of Jason Mraz, The Killers and sometimes Keane), instrumentals to songs I love, as well as tutorials on how to play some songs as well as cover songs by regular people. Thanks Steph for introducing me to this power (as well as to running but that’ll be a different story).

The latest computer feat I grew onto is facebook. Two people I know urged me to get facebook. I remember when people asked if I had facebook and I told them no – and they couldn’t believe it. Well now I have one and it’s not too bad.

So back to my watch. I’ve kept the same watch for 11 years. The actual watch (that tells the time) stayed the same. And so do I, well sort of. I’ve noticed that my body frame changed as I started playing sports. That’s as much as I’d like to say about that . . .

I don’t think I told you yet about the time I lost and retrieved my watch. It was mother’s day, 2006. My family and I ate out at a Chinese restaurant in Queens called Silver Pond. I remember clearly the condition of my watch during that time period of my life. The strap of the watch would come off sometimes because it was kind of broken at the junction where it met the part of the watch that tells the time. This rendered my watch a risky partner in time to wear because it could fall off if I’m not too careful with it. With that said, that mother’s day, my watch had accidentally fallen off of my wrist and onto the red-carpeted floor of the restaurant. The car ride home was average, only because I didn’t realize I had left my watch at the restaurant. It was only when we got home that my heart started racing and I started worrying about it. I didn’t know back then that it was in the restaurant. I checked and double checked the mini van and the drive way. Nothing. I had to find my watch because I had kept it for so long, I didn’t want to all of a sudden lose it. It now (and then) has intrinsic (sentimental) value to me. My dad decided to call the restaurant to see if they had found it. I don’t know if it was my dad’s love for my happiness of keeping that watch or if he just wanted to play a trick on me, but he said that the restaurant people couldn’t find it, when really they did. I lived for about a month without a watch. Oh, it was horrible! Ol’ reliable wasn’t reliable and I missed it a lot. It felt like loosing a pet – not that I would know how that would feel like, although I like to say I’m at least above average in sympathizing. So that went on for about a month, and then came father’s day. For father’s day we went to the same restaurant. My dad was a bit more giddy than usual, but again ambiguity asserted itself. Was it because it was father’s day or was it because he had a surprise for me? When we entered and as our waiter came to the table, they presented before me, my watch!! And they were smiling too! I don’t know what my dad told them on the phone that day, mother’s day, but they obviously knew how much my watch meant to me and were so happy to re-unite watch with girl. I love my dad. Not a bad tennis partner either!

Therefore, I conclude that my watch and I, - well, we go back. We got history. I want to make this on-going affair with my watch as long as possible. And with each passing birthday, I will not only be thinking about me, and how I’ve lived another year. I will also be thinking about how my watch has endured another year. How we went through it together. We’ll sing Happy Birthday to each other!


It's a handsome type of digital Armitron watch by the way.