tuesday may 11

today i left my house at about 8:50 pm to head to my friend's place to watch lost. as i walked down my front steps, the old italian woman who lives next door approached me on the sidewalk, yelling to get my attention. she was holding her television remote control in her hand and didn't appear to be dressed for the rainy, five-degree weather (no jacket!). she frantically started gesturing at her remote and speaking to me in broken english. after a few seconds of this, i threw up my hands in question, unable to understand exactly what she was saying to me. seeing my confusion, she exclaimed "come on!" and waved me into her house.

upon entering her home, i was led into the living room, where she once again attempted to demonstrate the problems she was having with her remote control. she would enter a channel number, the channel wouldn't change, and she would exclaim "same!" figuring i had a handle on what the problem was now, i fiddled with the remote for about 20 seconds until i figured out how to get the channels changing again. it was hard to tell if she was totally satisfied with my work, but nonetheless she thanked me and i said goodbye, continuing on to my friend's place, just in time for lost.

the entire exchange left me with a lot of questions: had she just been wandering along the sidewalk in hopes that someone would come along to help her? had i fixed the problem, or was there another issue i wasn't understanding? and was she really frantic to watch lost at 9:00 too, and worried she wouldn't be able to change the channel in time??