Last October my laptop broke. I had an old Toshiba. One day the screen went dark and it was never brought back to life. It was a sad sad day. I remember my roommates family was in town and staying at our house. I walked into the living room and announced the passing of my dear sweet friend. I wasn't angry or frustrated or in despair at all. But I did note a sense of loss, a deep loss. Yet there was calm. One that reminded me of all the wonderful things we had been through together.
I was alright for a while without my laptop. At work I had a computer so I could sit in front of the Internet all I wanted. My ipod was still able to keep me listening to all of my music (although I was definitely concerned about all of my music being lost if that broke). My blackberry kept me updated on any emails I wanted to ignore. When I got home at night there was a new sense of evening hours, not checking emails, not wasting time on facebook, not looking at old pictures, not trying to work after hours. Keep in mind, my roommate has a desktop and a laptop so of course I wasn't completely without mapquest, google, or online emergencies (like that). Other things fell to the side. Blogging for instance, has never been a priority and I forgot all about it. I LOVED being out of the loop of online gossip, battles of wit and show and tell. Of all the things to miss the most I missed my music. I couldn't download or upload anything. Nothing was added to the ipod. CD's were listened to and purchased the old fashioned way (although I admit I still like buying CD's).
Then I switched jobs. All of a sudden I found myself in a new world. One that didn't have me sitting in front of a computer all day. I had to borrow my roommates computer often to check work emails (they couldn't be sent to my phone) and then to keep up on paper work. Gradually my need for a new computer increased. I would try to go into the office where there were laptops to use but were often in demand. If I had my own computer I could sit at home and do all my paper work. That wasn't such a bad idea. I also noticed a lot of new music coming out that I couldn't add to my collection, not to mention the stuff I couldn't find out about because I was stuck in the world of music I already had. Finally my need became urgent.
I just bought a new laptop. It took me a while to suck it up and buy one. Last Tuesday I took home a beautiful new HP whatever laptop. Of course I have my after purchase week of financial remorse as well as MAC remorse. But this feels good. I like it. I have all my music and can add to it. I can't find my pictures yet (I had them but then I think I lost them somewhere--no worries, I'll find them) but slowly I am getting know this new stranger.
What's odd is that I feel torn. I got used to not using my computer. Now that I have this new toy I feel like I should make time for it. I should explore the new updated world of current technology before me.
But I think I want to go read a book.
