Up and Running

I've been sans laptop for two weeks since the monitor went black on mine the Sunday before Christmas. Altho I did have access to my husband's it wasn't the same as having my own nor would I be able to take it with me on my upcoming trip. Ed tried to get me a netbook for Christmas but the ones in his price range (under $300) were out of stock by the time he was able to go looking. And because of the weather--the icy passes north and south of the Rogue Valley--none of the stores got restocked before I had to leave so Ed sent the money with me.

My sister drove me back down to Portland from Longview this afternoon so I could shop in Oregon's tax free stores. Also my Mom has a Cosgo card and we checked there first but they were out of stock on the Acer Aspire netbook that was in my price range. So next stop Wal-Mart. And my heart sank to learn they too were out of stock. But they had the eMachines eM250 which had more hardrive memory than the Acer Aspire (250 G instead of 160) and was $70 less ($228 vs $298). I was hesitant at first, not having heard much about eMachines but after my sister called first her son at home in Longview WA and than my husband at home in Pheonix OR to get their takes I felt better about taking the plunge. If neither of those two geeks had heard anything negative about eMachine then it must be OK. If I'd known then what I just learned--that eMachines are made by Acer--I probably wouldn't have needed their input.

It's kind of weird, the parrels between this time and last time. When I bought my laptop in 2005, it was on a trip to Longview too. That time I had come to be with my family at my Dad's bedsied on the final days of his battle with cancer. My brother took me shopping in the Portland area and I brought it to my parent's to upack it and get it set up with my brother's help. So as I unpacked and setup this one pretty much by myself tonight I was having some skin-shivering de je vieu moments triggering some unsettling memories of that night in September 05 when the joy of acquiring the laptop I'd dreamed of for a decade and saved for for four years was mixed with the grief of knowing my Daddy was leaving us.

This time the excitement and joy is tinged only by the fatigue from the shopping and probbably from the stress of the week of trip prep and travel. Not to mention the stress of the last two weeks of being without my laptop and fretting about the files still on it. I know it sounds pathetic but I was feeling as disoriented as one who's lost a limb for the last two weeks. Now I'm up and running again with 24/7 access. And this time my story machine is truely as portable as a slender hardback book. Which means I can take it with me more places more often.

It's going to take some time to get everything set up to my liking on this one--settings and preferences and favorites and applications etc. When I first opened the box, I was eager to do as much as I could towards that goal tonight but two hours later I am too weary to keep going.