No rooster today but you can click the pic to email me (or not)
Yeah, that’s me underneath that brightly striped burka-like thing (beach towel) with my 12″ G4 Powerbook peeking out. Um, and my bare legs, oops.
I was sooooo excited about that laptop. At the time, we were still sharing a “family” computer. It was a loverly strawberry iMac but I really needed my own computer. I first saw the 12-inch G4 Powerbook in an ad in the New Yorker (the dead tree version). I lusted after that musheen. Problem. I was not what you might call gainfully employed at the time and we had one kid in college and another approaching that age. There wasn’t much extra room in the budget for moom to get her own new computer.
Truth? The Commander got wind of the dilemma and SHE BOUGHT ME ONE! I was not one to ask my parents for money but she offered and I took her up on it. I was hoping to get it all set up before the GG got home from work. Surprise!!! That didn’t exactly happen. Delivery was delayed a day because of snow and it came on Friday, a day he often didn’t have to work.
So he was HERE when Fedex delivered THREE BIG BOXES (computer, free printer, and I fergit what else). Amazingly, he did not notice the delivery and it wasn’t until I had the laptop unboxed and was playing around with it that we had the “Gasp! What did you do?” moment.
Other memories of that day, including Guinea Pig and maybe driving Mouse over to visit her sister at college for the weekend, are vague for the moment. I could probably look them up in the pre-wordpress archives of my blahg. But I won’t. But here I am sitting on the beach and I am pretty sure this was a graphic link on my old roll-yer-own blahg, so people could, y’know, comment on my posts since I didn’t have comment technology at that time. I definitely photoshopped the text onto the photooo. Ain’t it loverly?
I was working for YAG in those days and that musheen made my life soooo much easier. I could schlep it to any rehearsal venue we were using instead of hauling a big huge binder around. I will never forget when me and my late beautiful friend Paula figgered out that I could access wifi at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. That opened up a whole new dimension for me, in that I could send and reply to emails *right then* instead of having to stay up late to do it at home after rehearsals.
I had a great time schlepping that thing around and getting reactions from various male entities (most females were “you go girl” even if they weren’t particularly tech-savvy). Most of the young guys were greatly excited – by the computer, not me. Older guys sidled back into the woodwork, like my dad did when I used my debit card to pay for groceries bourbon at Glen’s once. “Did your mother give you any money?” “No dad, I’m paying for this.” [Love you dad.] Guys somewhere in the vicinity of my age couldn’t figger me out and either made conversation about their own computer conquests or regarded me as one o’ them thar Uppity Women. And I AM an uppity woman (sorta). So what.
I’m writing this blahg from my most recent MacBook Pro. I think it is my fourth Apple laptop but I could be wrong. I think I am on my 6th iPhone. I still love my laptop but I can often do most of what I need to do on the Internet with my iPhone.
I will always remember how the Commander helped me when I needed her and I do my best to pay that forward whenever I can.