1
Swirl City
Posted by
Luminosity
,
in
Personal
03 November 2011
·
903 views
suburb mcdonalds computer cafe
I came to a place I will call Swirl City, to use a computer cafe, but I have been treated with contempt. When I came in a guy said, hell no, and I think it had something to do with me. When I asked for help with something, a guy had a smile like he found that funny. When I had asked for help with that earlier, I thought I heard chuckling. This sucks. I really hate that, when you are trying to deal with technology and you get dumped on by arrogant young people. I just had that the other day at the cell phone store and now it's here. It sucks even more because I came all the way out here to this suburb to use this cafe and they use a lot of air freshener. I am allergic to it so I'm not getting that much done. I wasn't expecting that.
Before that I was making my way around Swirl City, which is singularly unattractive and devoid of trees. The people here are not educated, and it's like a swamp, energy-wise. It's like an invisible swampification is surrounding you. First I went to a Best Buy which actually went really well. Then I went to a restaurant in an ancient concrete strip mall but the people in the other cars were yelling at me. I ignored the first one because the heavily tattooed arm hanging out of his monster truck, and the racial politics, made me think that he was just racially harassing me. This can happen here when you go into certain neighborhoods. But by the third person I realized they were yelling "wrong way." The parking lot was one way, even though it had two lanes and no signs. There were some faded yellow arrows painted on the pavement. I drove through some empty parking spaces till I was the right way around. Then I went to a restaurant that was supposed to have good ethnic food. But the overwhelming smell of pinesol assaulted my nose and I didn't think I'd be able to handle it. It wasn't good, but it was air-conditioned in there. I remembered the waitress from years ago. I remembered that she seemed difficult.
She said "Just you?"
"Just me." I said, feeling deflated.
From there it got worse. She disappeared for so long that I realized that she wasn't going to take my order. I went to the back to ask about that. She claimed she forgot about me because she was cooking the stew, which she was. But I felt something was wrong from the minute she came up to me. She tried to act like it wasn't intentional but I said, "I feel like you don't want to wait on me. I won't bother you. I will go."
I left and went to McDonalds for a McRib, which had been my original plan. I had tried to upgrade to something healthier. I drove to where the McDonalds was in my imagination, but it was a Burger King. I just kept driving down the eight-lane highway flanked by high tension wires. By the law of averages, if you keep driving in a suburb, you will come across a McDonald's. I saw a Jack in a Box and a Taco Bell. I pulled in to gather my wits and see if a McDonalds was there too. No, so I turned around to go back out but this Taco Bell was also one way but in a confusing, weird way. This suburb was put together in pieces in the mid twentieth century with no real planning, either within any given property or as a whole. There are many cranky things to deal with and absolutely no quaint charming touches. I passed a KFC. I found a McDonalds. Even though it was 1:00 p.m., the dining room was full of loud, rowdy children. Wednesday, they let the children out of school early. When I was young, teachers used to last all day. Almost every table was filled with young people swearing, yelling and banging on the table. The din was amazing. McDonalds is over-caffienating our young people one person at a time and it looks like hell to me. I sat there and ate my McRib and the baby carrots I smuggled in and tried to ignore the words hell, bitch and more from the twelve year olds next to me. I tried to concentrate on the mother and baby to my right who seemed unaffected by the atmosphere. Then I got into my car and felt the swampification of Swirl City. I came to the computer cafe and now I'm here.
The library computers where I live are jokes. Earlier I spent a few hours researching other public computers and computer cafe's. There's not much.
I did my best to write what I came here to write. I had gathered up my stuff and bought some things at Best Buy. I'm trying to get into gear. I have lived through every wave of technology from the sixties to now. I mastered many of them earlier but they will not cease mutating. They are more and more planned to become obsolete and expensive, locking certain people out. I feel locked out and I feel disgusted. I have something to say but that doesn't seem to matter, just that I have thousands of dollars of the lastest technology and know how to use it, even though in a year to two it will be replaced by something else. I can't keep up with it. I am treated with contempt.
It's like a merry-go-round and I have to try to get on, but for how long or to what effect, nobody knows. I just feel angry and disappointed. I am here but the structure that would have supported me isn't. I tried.
Before that I was making my way around Swirl City, which is singularly unattractive and devoid of trees. The people here are not educated, and it's like a swamp, energy-wise. It's like an invisible swampification is surrounding you. First I went to a Best Buy which actually went really well. Then I went to a restaurant in an ancient concrete strip mall but the people in the other cars were yelling at me. I ignored the first one because the heavily tattooed arm hanging out of his monster truck, and the racial politics, made me think that he was just racially harassing me. This can happen here when you go into certain neighborhoods. But by the third person I realized they were yelling "wrong way." The parking lot was one way, even though it had two lanes and no signs. There were some faded yellow arrows painted on the pavement. I drove through some empty parking spaces till I was the right way around. Then I went to a restaurant that was supposed to have good ethnic food. But the overwhelming smell of pinesol assaulted my nose and I didn't think I'd be able to handle it. It wasn't good, but it was air-conditioned in there. I remembered the waitress from years ago. I remembered that she seemed difficult.
She said "Just you?"
"Just me." I said, feeling deflated.
From there it got worse. She disappeared for so long that I realized that she wasn't going to take my order. I went to the back to ask about that. She claimed she forgot about me because she was cooking the stew, which she was. But I felt something was wrong from the minute she came up to me. She tried to act like it wasn't intentional but I said, "I feel like you don't want to wait on me. I won't bother you. I will go."
I left and went to McDonalds for a McRib, which had been my original plan. I had tried to upgrade to something healthier. I drove to where the McDonalds was in my imagination, but it was a Burger King. I just kept driving down the eight-lane highway flanked by high tension wires. By the law of averages, if you keep driving in a suburb, you will come across a McDonald's. I saw a Jack in a Box and a Taco Bell. I pulled in to gather my wits and see if a McDonalds was there too. No, so I turned around to go back out but this Taco Bell was also one way but in a confusing, weird way. This suburb was put together in pieces in the mid twentieth century with no real planning, either within any given property or as a whole. There are many cranky things to deal with and absolutely no quaint charming touches. I passed a KFC. I found a McDonalds. Even though it was 1:00 p.m., the dining room was full of loud, rowdy children. Wednesday, they let the children out of school early. When I was young, teachers used to last all day. Almost every table was filled with young people swearing, yelling and banging on the table. The din was amazing. McDonalds is over-caffienating our young people one person at a time and it looks like hell to me. I sat there and ate my McRib and the baby carrots I smuggled in and tried to ignore the words hell, bitch and more from the twelve year olds next to me. I tried to concentrate on the mother and baby to my right who seemed unaffected by the atmosphere. Then I got into my car and felt the swampification of Swirl City. I came to the computer cafe and now I'm here.
The library computers where I live are jokes. Earlier I spent a few hours researching other public computers and computer cafe's. There's not much.
I did my best to write what I came here to write. I had gathered up my stuff and bought some things at Best Buy. I'm trying to get into gear. I have lived through every wave of technology from the sixties to now. I mastered many of them earlier but they will not cease mutating. They are more and more planned to become obsolete and expensive, locking certain people out. I feel locked out and I feel disgusted. I have something to say but that doesn't seem to matter, just that I have thousands of dollars of the lastest technology and know how to use it, even though in a year to two it will be replaced by something else. I can't keep up with it. I am treated with contempt.
It's like a merry-go-round and I have to try to get on, but for how long or to what effect, nobody knows. I just feel angry and disappointed. I am here but the structure that would have supported me isn't. I tried.
