So after almost a year wait, I have bought a laptop. I wanted to get one last summer but school was going to cost the usual arm and a leg so I couldn’t spare a few fingers. Even this year there were a number of hurdles before I could actually get it. First, I was going to get it during the school year, in an effort to help with note taking and such, but the taxman took all my life savings at that point. Then I had a bunch of expenses that required my attention once school got out, such as a new bookshelf and summer clothes and shoes of various occassions.
Tuesday, I went to the computer store and looked at laptops, having received my first paycheck from my summer job almost a week before, bloated with a few hours of overtime. The first store I went to had computers that were expensive and I couldn’t have really afforded them. I went to my parents house to talk to my dad about getting the best deal and checked Dell.com and then went to BestBuy. They had exactly what I wanted in my price range. In fact, the Dell.com computer I was looking at was at BestBuy for the same price. That was nice. Now I had picked out my computer.
There were only two sales reps in the computer section of the store and so I waited for about a half an hour for my turn. the people in front of me in the pecking order didn’t really know what they wanted at all. Anyway, I had to tell the guy four times that all I wanted was the computer. I didn’t need to hear what it could do, because I already knew. I didn’t want to hear about extra services for assorbatant extra fees, I couldn’t afford them anyway.
Finally, after being on the hunt for several hours that Tuesday, I was in the checkout. Unfortunately, checks were my only payment option. Needless to say, the $480 check didn’t clear with my driver’s license, which he tried five times. Next, we tried to set up a BestBuy charge account, but that didn’t work either. Without other options, they held the computer for me until yesterday.
Yesterday, I went to the bank over my lunch break and withdrew $500 to pay for my new tool. That took the entire time so I didn’t get to eat lunch at all. After work, I biked to the store and slapped 5 $100 bills on the counter for the laptop. Still, I hadn’t eaten anything substancial that day and needed to get home to take a shower. I was done with everything except eating by 5, which surprised me greatly, because I thought it would take me much longer to go to the store.
So, in addition to the new bachelor pad, I now also have a computer and unlimited access to the internet. It has been said that I wouldn’t have the self-control to not be online playing games 24/7. I think that is one thing that separates me from a number of people. When I was 11, I saved my allowance when other people were spending it at my dad’s candy store. When I first got my bank account, I gave my dad $93 I’d saved up to deposit. In an era of sixty cents a week allowance, that kind of money was hard to come by. Basically, what I’m saying is that for me unlimited access doesn’t always mean unlimited continuous use. In fact, I won’t be on this any more than I was during school.
Lastly, what it does mean is that I’ll have the internet to post more regularly. Now, granted I still will probably not post just for the sake of saying I’ve posted. That’s not how I roll, as I’ve already said, but it will mean that the backlogged posts will be forthcoming when I decide the right order etc.
Finally, I’ve been labeled a bum by Joe and Dan. This hardly makes sense considering the circumstances but there it is. They both say it is because I don’t have a life. I’m assuming that they believe they do. This “Life” that they have doesn’t seem to me to be something to search for and aspire to. Joe doesn’t have a job but is in ROTC and will have training later this summer, which limits what he can go in terms of work anyway. He has a fiance that he spends almost every waking moment with, again understandable but it means that there is nothing besides that. Dan works two jobs, so he has that on me, but working is not what they mean by “a life” or Joe wouldn’t qualify. Daniel also has a significant other that he spends a great deal of the rest of his time with, the time he’s not working, attending classes, and I would say doing homework but that has become a group activity. In other words, if having “a Life” means isolating yourself from the rest of the world and devoting all your energy and attention to a single person, I don’t want a part of it. I have tried the isolating myself part and it’s utterly destructive. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and when I see other people doing it, I wince at the knowledge of where it leads. That path is not scenic nor healthy by any means.
Consider this an excited tease with the hopes of delivering more posts soon.
JA Menter
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget. Yet I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me” Isa 49:15-16