Cables

Ancient photograph posted here because I'm transitioning, as we speak. This morning's post marks the first, ever, to be typed on the stylish little MacBook Pro whom I've named Annie and who is finally, finally, after months of deliberation and then two nights of head scratching, an hour long phone conversation first with "Lance" of Apple then with "Will" of Apple regarding my Airport Extreme and all of its cables, networks, addresses (IP? DHCP? What the...)...wireless! Annie's wireless! And yesterday, I took her to the office to download an iWork trial and an Aperture trial, both with which I'm going to play this morning while Craig sleeps on and on! It's ideal - I won't lie - sitting here on my comfortable gray couch with my lightweight little friend in my lap, Internet-ready, word processing ready, and photo-play ready on a casual Saturday morn. So this is what all those laptop lovers over years have been experiencing and loving! This is my first laptop ownership, so I'm fairly geeked over it and impressed by its convenience. Craig's work laptop is where Elements began back when, in the Atlanta days, but we weren't "wireless" so I remained at the mercy of an Ethernet cable. This stuff is downright impressive! I'm old, so old that the last time I owned a Mac, or, as I'd prefer to call it, an Apple computer, word processing was about all of the capacity I had. I could log onto very slow AOL email, but I wasn't using it much back then. Digital photography didn't exist then, not, at least, in my world (the first camera Craig and I owned together was a 35mm) and in fact it wasn't until like April 2001 that I finally broke down and accepted a "cellular phone" from my dad - a tiny little AT&T thing, for "road emergencies only." Now, it's 2009 and I'm on a laptop with wireless Internet and I cannot live without my silly iPhone and Facebook and Gmail. There are so many times this is so loathsome to me, yet I love it in the very same breath. Communication lines have both weakened and strengthened. Finding old friends (via Facebook) has never been easier. It's just about a given that all people will eventually cave and at least join (regardless of what excuses they may make about why!) This world is so different. I imagine this is what our parents experienced when cars got speedier and fancier and when Walkmans with headphones trumped old vinyl players. Or when television advanced from b&w to color (quite possibly before my parents' time?? I am not good with stuff like that!) I can even be quite sure, sitting here, that this luxurious little laptop is already depreciating by the minute and something will soon, if not has already, take its place! So, so strange, to think. And I've been communicating with an old friend who likes music a lot, and it got me to thinking about how much I miss, truthfully, saving my allowance or minimum wage pay from Dairy Queen or the Greenwood Gazette or babysitting, jumping in my '85 Escort (4-speed!) to zoom to that Greenwood record store called Karma, rifling through the cassettes or, yes, compact discs, even, to find new music. Attracted to cover art, band names, song titles...what have you...why do that now, when Pandora Radio will inform me what I may like based on what I already like? Whoa, lazy! I guess things are acceptable now as is, but there are select memories that I have that I doubt the newer generations will get to have. And as much aging has taken and will continue to take its toll on me technologically speaking (for instance how confused I was setting up WiFi, or how I will likely remain to be amazed at this thing that I'm doing right now, sitting on my couch with so much free range ability in my lap) I don't mind that I can look back and have lived during a time when technology was in its fetal stages, when cassette tape would wear out from repeated play, or when MTV still showed music videos!*Today is magnificent. We are heading out around 2 for our second "food crawl." Craig has found this Vietnamese sandwich shop where he wants to kick it off. I'm elated because I happen to like Vietnamese cuisine (thanks to Bonnie & Jack back in St. Louis!) and Craig has always been a little wary of it. Of course, that was until his new favorite man crush Anthony Bourdain mentioned it! Now Craig is all for it! We have invited our friends Steve and Andrea to come along, as well. We're going to hit as many places as we can in about 4 hours, then accompany them to their apartment in Midtown to walk and feed their new puppy. Then we will head out again for a few more hours of eating. Food! I'm so excited. We will aim to hit all sorts of varieties of places, of varying ethnicities, ambiences and locale. I love these days. I love feeling less stress about work and a good dose of simplicity. Next up: must decide on this French language thing and whether or not I'm going to attempt to tackle it prior to traveling this November. Decisions! Thanks to my Apple friends for bestowing the ability to post like this this morning. :)