Saturday 13 January 1996

Saturday 13th January 1996
Vienna, VA

This ↓ is a list of internet (cyberspace) cafes in the USA. Published in last Friday's USA Today. It's a start!*

**

Well - guess what I did today?!! I got a tattoo!! A real one***. It's a dolphin, bright-ish blue and is on my left breast - sort of curving around the nipple, but about 1" away. Only took 20 mins, but it hurt! I tried to focus out though, so it wasn't too bad. Catherine went with me, but I couldn't convince her to get one!****

The place I got it done was called Inkers, in Rockville, Maryland. Very clean - large and airy and they used new needles each time.*****

It's a bit sore now, but not as bad as I thought.

Lee's aunt Anne (David's sister) and her new husband (#3) arrived tonight. Allan. Pretentious prick. C & I have decided. Anne is lovely - reminds us of Kathleen - she (Anne) is a school teacher too. Don't know why she chose an asshole like him - he won't even look at you when you're answering his questions. Unless you're a man. Chauvinist. Oh well, not my rellos thank god. And I'll be heading south - probably Monday or Tuesday. Hope to get to Atlanta by Friday to catch that hockey game with Chris!******

________________________________________________

OK so let me emphasise that that diary entry was from 1996. Fourteen years ago. I was 24. Don't hold it against me.

Some notes I would like to add:

* Internet cafes were not common places in 1996 in the USA. They were quite a new concept. As was hotmail. I had to communicate with the folks back home in Australia the old fashioned way, by post or phone. I think I even sent a fax once too and thought I was sooo up with the technology.

** The newspaper cutout was pasted in at this point.

*** As opposed to a fake one? LOL. I really was young and naïve.

**** I couldn't convince her at the time but I think she was so shamed by the bravery of her young cousin versus her own reticence, that she has since had three tattoos. One of which is the same as my second one.

***** It cracks me up that I was so concerned about size and airiness and hygiene and the use of new needles. Not that I shouldn't have been, of course I should have been. But the fact I thought that was an important point to note down in my journal makes me laugh.

****** In case you were wondering, I made it to Atlanta in time for the hockey game. And spent the weekend bunking on the sofa in a dorm room of a boy I'd never met before, in a frat house. That's worthy of its own post really.




Happy 14th Birthday little tattoo. Thank you for being a daily reminder of the joy and importance of taking risks and enjoying life.