The gym has this button somewhere in the room which you can press if you require assistance, and it reminded me the Dial-A-Friend phone service of old. I remember wanting to call them up back when I was in sixth grade, depressed, hating everyone, writing suicide letters (I edited and rewrote them as needed), and wanting to run away and hide in India, of all places, with the plan of coming back really dark, with long hair, and extremely skinny.

(Where all that angst came from at the age of 11, I have no idea. I'm happy to report that today, I may still be nuts, occasionally boiling over with rage, and constantly battling laziness, but I'm in a damn good place.)

Anyway, Dial-A-Friend. I first read about it in an old local magazine called Teen Magazine, to which my sister subscribed. That publication was brilliant; it didn't give a load of makeup tips, didn't encourage girls to go all out in snagging their dream guys, didn't recommend clothes, accessories, and jewelry the prices of which will make parents shed copious tears, and it really gave a lot of decent advice. I believe the particular issue had Mikee Cojuangco looking fresh and pretty as always on the cover. At the time, Dial-A-Friend seemed like a good idea, but the number given was always, always busy, so I abandoned that option. Now that I think about it, it must be a tough job to be a Dial-A-Friend counselor. What if the counselor had problems of his/her own and cracked under all the pressure? Could it cause job burnout?

Still, it's a nice program to have, and I'm sure they've helped a lot of people. Oh look, I just Googled it and found that they're still around. How nice is that?