I was outside of a closed library, huddled in the corner to hide the red glow of the Apple logo beneath my computer’s case. The bugs were eating me up through my polyester work shirt. Every loud car horn or random spout of drunken laughter made me nervous. I occasionally glanced around, making sure no one could see me.

How did I get here? Well, it all started after I got off from work. I wanted to watch a movie to unwind a little bit before I started working on my screenplay. I decided to watch a recently released film that I was sort of excited for, but if I’m being honest with myself, I really just wanted to watch it so I could say I finished the series.

I turned the hotspot on from my phone because I wasn’t at home so I didn’t have access to Wi-Fi.  I bought the film for $14.99 on iTunes and started downloading it to my computer. It started downloading pretty quickly and then it slowed down. A few minutes later, I received a text message from my service provider telling me that I’d reach my limit of unlimited high-speed data and my data would start slowing down. Thank you, T-mobile for falsely advertising unlimited high-speed data. Really…

2 hours later and I wasn’t even a gigabyte into the 3.4 gigabyte download.

I don’t know why I didn’t just let it go. It’s not like I really wanted to watch the film, I just wanted to complete the series. I’m a finisher. I finish things even when I know I’m not really going to enjoy it.

Maybe it was because I paid $14.99 and I refused to wait for what I paid for. So I got up and I walked to the local library…at night…while it was closed. I think it’s important to note that I wasn’t in the “best” neighborhood either but if I’m being honest, I feared more for my expensive MacBook Pro than my life. That’s the real secret of the hood: most people aren’t in actual danger but their property is.

I thought the movie download would only take about 5 minutes because when I’m at home, it takes about 2 minutes. But it didn’t. It actually took about 34 minutes and during that whole time I was slightly paranoid. Sure, I was fearful for my computer but I was also just generally paranoid. I don’t know why I felt like I was doing something wrong. I have a library card. In fact, that’s the library I go to when I’m not on campus. And it wasn’t like I’d broken into the library. I was sitting in front of it, just behind its pillars. So why did I feel so bad? Plus, once my younger brother found out what I’d done, let’s just say parents were called…stern talking-tos were given…and everyone was a bit confused.

Yes, even at the age of 21, I was scolded for my actions and it really wasn’t my actions that resulted in the scolding, it was more of the fact that it was just so late at night and I’d went out by myself. Yes, there is a bit of sexism in that but there is also a general concern for my safety.

Anyway, what was the weirdest thing you’ve ever done for internet service?