🫖 Oh, hello! This is tsundoku, my recommendation column for paid subscribers. The title of the series comes from the delightfully specific Japanese word for a stack of books that you never get around to reading. This time around, I touch on Substack discourse, beverages, New Year’s Resolutions and more! You can upgrade your subscription to read it all or enjoy a wee preview. 🫖
🤡 Making a principled decision and dealing with the recourse later
Christmas Eve. Supine on a sky blue couch in Manhattan Beach, CA. I made a huffy decision that $85.99 was far too much for me to be paying Spectrum every month for a 300 Mbps Wi-Fi plan at my New York apartment. Highway robbery! I said. Spectrum will not allow you to cancel service online, so to everyone’s horror, I was able to make a phone call to customer service, in which I baldy lied that I was moving to Brooklyn and would NOT be needing to transfer my plan with me. My hope was this would prevent the Spectrum rep from desperately begging me to stay. I was not in the mood for a spectacle. After 16 minutes, the deed was done. Satisfied with myself, I washed my hands clean of the affair, thinking this sounds like a problem for Charlotte of the future.
A problem it was, when on December 31st my internet access expired at the beginning of the day when I assumed it would last until the end. Had I started to research a new Wi-Fi provider? No, my dear reader, I had not. Don’t get me wrong: I can live without Wi-Fi for a bit. But, the situation presented some unexpected adjustments. I had the bones of my New Year’s Eve post, doorways, but it needed a lot of work and I had planned to devote the day to writing. Writing without Wi-Fi is, of course, possible, but to deal with any of the formatting on Substack requires the stuff. I took to the streets (coffee shops) to buy the cheapest item on the menu and stay for as long as possible on a holiday. (I know I suck! But, you must remember that my current financial strife is the very reason I broke up with Spectrum to begin with).
Outcomes. I finished my essay before the ball dropped. Eventually, I found a new Wi-Fi plan. In the five days before it arrived, I had to be intentional about when I really needed to use the internet. Using the internet meant going outside, and being outside, I met people. This was lovely. In the time I spent at home, I read, I listened to records, I cooked thoughtfully and without the noise of TV to distract me from my thoughts. This was lovely. Was it all a little ridiculous and unneccessary? Yes. But would I have done it again differently? No, I would not.