No more laptop, no more dial-up...just me, a dish, and the new iMac!

I've had a hell of a life since the last time I posted. Not only did the kid get sick, but the SAME exact day, my laptop died -- not crashed; not almost crashed; not 'acting funny' -- but the motherboard is completely fried!

So that's that: a nine hundred dollar piece of junk. Another knick-knack for my shelf.

Last Wednesday, about a week after-the-fact, my friend drove to the Capital City to see TRANSFORMERS at one of those fancy theaters, and since I'm too scared to drive up there, he stopped at Best Buy for me, and picked up my new iMac. 

Nice. Nice. Nice.

I've never owned any thing so extravagant! And I'm very happy to have it. I'm sure I don't deserve it, though, but what you can afford and what you deserve are two different things. I used to be on welfare, and I'm sure I deserved something better than government cheese. But I was lucky to have it. Not that I could eat it. Now I'm boring you, aren't I?

Details. 

Well, the iMac. It's very interesting...it doesn't have a 'tower'; the entire computer is built into the screen!

I've only ever used Windows, so it's gonna take a lot of re-adjusting.

All the changes I'm currently making:

Windows to Mac
HP to Apple
Laptop to Desktop
touchpad to mouse
Firefox to Safari
[and best of all] extremely slow dial-up to super-fast wireless!!

Hu-zah.

I always thought I couldn't get wireless out here -- I live in the middle of a forest, you know -- but my neighbors have a satellite dish for it, so sure enough, I was able to get one too. 

Now I don't have to wait five minutes for the Internet to connect: it's always on! And it doesn't take ten minutes to upload a photo. 

I haven't tried downloading music yet, but it used to take about half an hour to download one single song. And to watch a video on YouTube (or anywhere), I would have to let it load for at least an hour, then come back, and re-play it just to watch it.

Now I'm like everyone else! Finally caught up. And after more than four years of blogging on dial-up, I'm really excited to be able to use something faster, and more efficient. Now I don't have to lug my laptop nearly an hour away from here, to the cheap little hamburger stand in College Town (one of the only places I know that has free WI-FI within a decent amount of driving distance) just to upload a video of Dana Andrews singing! (Yes, I  went to all that trouble for a thirty-second clip...)

I've got a million other things to tell you. It's been a strange, and sickly, and almost tragic two weeks. I just thought I'd start off with something bright. One of the only bright things in my life right now, except of course for the two brightest silver linings: my sister has recovered from surgery (an emergency trip to the hospital! post-pregnancy related), and my little girl is feeling better. 
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Thanks for listening.

I hope you're well. :)

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