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In An Alternative Universe
Jul. 24th, 2008 08:39 pmIn an alternative universe, I am a compact, sultry Filipino woman. Living amidst coconut palms and bananas, wearing filmy voile dresses against the tropical heat. Who is also a technical writer.
I made an appointment with someone in the Middle East today for a work-related phone discussion at a time when we're both awake, but it wasn't quite clear that I was, while not in this guy's time zone, in New Zealand. He assumed I was calling from my company's Philippines office. And the weather here has been so cold, rainy, windy, and altogether foul that not only am I not correcting him, I rather like the idea. On Earth Prime, I'm telling the houseboy to open a drinking coconut and bring me fresh frangipani while I tap away at my computer, and my Singapura cat twines around my ankles.
This is a change from my usual "in an alternative universe" whimsey, which is that I live in a world that did not experience the major Holocene/Anthropocene extinctions caused by humanity. In this Earth (let's call it Earth 69), I myself am much more familiar, in my little cottage in a New Zealand valley. But, living surrounded by forested hills, instead of a lavender hedge, I have a divaricating pittosporum, because those darn moas are always getting into the yard, and they eat everything with flowers. You'd think that my pet thylacine, Southey, would keep them away, but they just think she's a smaller moa with four legs. I may get a ray gun, just to keep on stun, for when they come around. In case you were wondering, on Earth 69, I do commute via a silk mini-dirigible - doesn't everybody?
I made an appointment with someone in the Middle East today for a work-related phone discussion at a time when we're both awake, but it wasn't quite clear that I was, while not in this guy's time zone, in New Zealand. He assumed I was calling from my company's Philippines office. And the weather here has been so cold, rainy, windy, and altogether foul that not only am I not correcting him, I rather like the idea. On Earth Prime, I'm telling the houseboy to open a drinking coconut and bring me fresh frangipani while I tap away at my computer, and my Singapura cat twines around my ankles.
This is a change from my usual "in an alternative universe" whimsey, which is that I live in a world that did not experience the major Holocene/Anthropocene extinctions caused by humanity. In this Earth (let's call it Earth 69), I myself am much more familiar, in my little cottage in a New Zealand valley. But, living surrounded by forested hills, instead of a lavender hedge, I have a divaricating pittosporum, because those darn moas are always getting into the yard, and they eat everything with flowers. You'd think that my pet thylacine, Southey, would keep them away, but they just think she's a smaller moa with four legs. I may get a ray gun, just to keep on stun, for when they come around. In case you were wondering, on Earth 69, I do commute via a silk mini-dirigible - doesn't everybody?
