I'll admit it, I'm an analogue woman. I may have been one of the first to have a cel phone the size of a brick, but the one I got next, a wallet-sized clam-shell, has never been "upgraded". Although I am able to take and send photos with it, the whole texting thing has eluded me. (Maybe because I can just ring people?)

When I'm organized enough to plan anything, I do so in a Standard Diary. My alarm clock ticks away near my head, but it is electric. The wind-up Baby Bens just don't feature snooze alarms. I know enough about computers to send e-mails, go to sites and begin to set up this blog. Whilst I was pootling around with it last night, trying to work out what was meant by "HTML" and "template", I found to my surprise, that there were a bunch of comments on.....what else, my blog template! Thanks to all those who took the time to post them. It turns out that I can't post these on the blog now, but I THINK I've done done the right steps for future comments. Time will tell.

We all know people stuck in time. When I was bartending in a center city taproom in the nineties, I knew a guy with long, thick chestnut hair. He parted it in the middle, and it was feathered, feathered, feathered. Mullets, for some reason, have an enduring fan-base in both men and women. According to ABC news, they have their highest per capita representation in the good ole Steel City of Pittsburgh, P.A. There are retro-chic hipsters, crusties, hippies, b-boys, gangstas, Pink Punks (Sid must be pissing himself laughing), people who purchase and wear polyester and those who go out in curlers.

Which brings me to a guy I know named "Wally". He's not exactly stuck in time, per se, although his dress features the eighties a lot. It's more that he is his own time; his own beat. Wally sports stone and acid washed denim, sleeveless vests and jackets with plaid shirts underneath; the collars flipped up. His sense of decor is interesting.

He is clearly a fan of Ren-Faire and in his vestibule hang cinnamon scented brooms, a styling chain-mail shirt and the largest dream-catcher that I have ever seen. His apartment is an efficiency. On his bed are two huge white, plush tigers. Sheepskins and a couple more tigers feature on the couch. (Anyone? Anyone?). The alarm clock is most enourmous digital clock I have ever seen. Each number is ten inches high! I kid you not. The bathmat is a weird shag made with one inch strips of different shades of faux suede. (Let this be a lesson to you: careful who you ask to feed your pets!)

Wally has a different taste than I do in music. We've worked together and he wanted to play his, loudly. I'm a little sensitive to sound (see Ah, The Sounds Of The City.of 4/21/08), so as you may imagine, my days were a little rough. He went to a paint-ball weekend with the guys and bought the gear, because it was so cool. I know, I know, I am being catty. Myself, I'm a fashion disaster, but I know tragic taste when I see it.

If Wally was a really nice person, maybe I wouldn't have the same reaction to his fleece sweater with the howling wolf on it. Or his saying, "You know, my family still has holdings back in Germany."....Holdings?! But, on the positive side of the modern world, there is the internet. I have a feeling that Wally surfs it a lot. I bet there is a Miss Wally out there, gazing through her dream catcher, just waiting for a great guy like him.