Time Warner came to my apartment to finally install my cable and internet this morning at 9:45 -- my appointment was at 10. Great!, I thought. I can get this over with, sleep for a couple hours and have the rest of my day to do whatever I need to do to finish settling in.

Not the case. I was napping with Project Runway on in the background and all of a sudden the cable box decides to reboot itself. I didn't think it was a big deal and let it do its thing, hoping that this would be the only time it happened.

Unfortunately, the damn thing decides to reboot every half hour on the half hour until around 1:30, when it refuses to even connect at all, and now the box is pretty much dead and won't even switch on.

I called Time Warner at 1:45 to tell them about the problem, and basically demanded that they send a tech over today since the box was LESS THAN TWO HOURS OLD when it conked out. It's 6:10 and I'm still waiting for a tech to show up.

So much for being productive today. I can't even go take a shower now, in case the tech shows up. At least my internet is working okay this time around.

I am officially a MAN because tonight I switched out the coaxial cables in my splitter and now have internet AND tv, instead of just one. Essentially, I did the repair guy's job. I am so undeservedly proud of myself.

Internet at home is out again for the sixth or seventh time over the course of the year. It probably has to do with the recent snow/ice storm and the wire connections on the roof (which were sketchy at best). Add this to the loooooong list of reasons why I cannot WAIT to move out of my dump of a studio next summer (other pertinent ones being the overheating, lack of legitimately hot water, and the constant fear that the elevator's going to break down. I'm tempted to put the orange walls on there too, I'm starting to get really sick of them).

So right now I'm sitting in the Dunkin Donuts around the corner from my building. Thank god that I have a laptop. I'm also at the window counter people-watching, so it's not all bad.

These past two days have made me realize that I hate how dependent on the Internet I am. Every so often I think about getting rid of the Internet at home altogether but at this point I'm 99% sure that it would never fly. I flipped out yesterday at around 5 when I wanted to check my email and couldn't, and embarked on a two hour trek to every coffee shop and Starbucks in the vicinity. I got so upset at the lack of free wireless access that I ended up just going shopping instead, to try and distract myself. (Tangentially, holiday sales are the best thing EVER. I got a great jacket marked down to $10 from $68, which definitely put me in a better mood.)

I suppose being disconnected from the world is good in a way. It'll get me to edit down my essays and study the 75 Newsweeks I have sitting in my apartment. But at this point I just want my damn cable box to start working again. On a day like today I'd rather be in bed writing this entry than sitting on an uncomfortable wooden stool.

So while waiting for the technician to come by today (he's still got 45 minutes left to show up) I decided to unplug and re-plug in my router just to see what would happen. And my internet came back.

I am so pissed off right now.

MADDY BRAVO, MAKE UP YOUR FREAKING MIND.

I have TV! AND INTERNET!!

Screw graduation, this is seriously the happiest day of my life.