humbled by a cable box: one girl's showdown with her electronics

I consider myself a feminist.

I think Joan of Arc and Rosie the Riviter were bad ass, read books about how to empower myself at work, and think it is ridiculous that my co-worker (a male) makes more than I do at the same level.

But there is one area for which I remain a sexist. I believe it is a man's domain and while a woman can be just as capable as any man, this woman isn't.

I'm talking about electronics.

I returned from my big Texas adventure to find that my cable box had a lovely error message that read something like "You this box does not have permission. Please call your cable company. You cannot watch your favorite shows anymore. Sucker!" So I called the cable company, they had me do all sorts of high-tech things like unplug it and plug it back in and then determined they needed to send a tech.

I realized after I made the appointment for between 5 and 8 pm on Saturday that my sitting job started at 5:15. Then when I learned no one else was going to be home, I put on my big girl panties and marched myself down to the tech center armed with a book and prepared to wait 2 hrs to see someone who would say 3 words to me before giving me a brand spanking new box. 20 mins later I almost skipped home.

Fast forward a bit to me trying to set up the stupid thing. I even called my bro for some long distance tech support. Where was he when I needed him? He always set up all my electronic stuff! When that didn't work I gave up for the day. On Sunday I had my roommate look at it. Still no luck. I called tech support where a very nice guy walked me through it, still to no avail. I gave up and made another appointment to have someone come out again and since I can't take off work for this stuff I resigned myself to wait until next Sunday for my lovely ridiculous reality shows.

Tonight I was upstairs eating when roommate #2 and I got on the subject. She said she'd come down and take a look at it. We fiddled around for a second when she said, "Are you sure it is on the right channel?" After uttering an emphatic "Yes!" I decided to hunt down the remote (buried in my bed as always) and press 0 3 just to prove her wrong.

And what happens.... ?

The damn thing comes on.

So I have to cancel my Time Warner appointment.

I really can't wait until I can't wait to pass the electronic reigns to a man. I may be able to carry a 50 lb. air conditioner several blocks and up 5 flights of stairs (NOT something I recommend, by the way. I was insane to do it!) but this... nope. I am totally challenged.