Nesting

There have been any number of things that have gone on today that have pretty much put me on edge.  And, in some cases, over the edge.  Most of them were the typical sorts of things that happen during a workday:  scheduling, co-workers who are not exactly of the same mind-set as myself, lack of coffee...you know how it goes.  

But, after many, many weeks of dealing with a failed laptop delivery that was ordered via the school district's purchasing plan, to find that there was still no email confirming shipping was pretty much the end of the line for me, patience-wise.  Sheepie had had enough.  Having learned last week that my Cheerful Teaching Assistant received her notification on Thursday, I was ready to declare war on all things technological.  First on my hit list:  the Tech Director.  I fired up my school email account, cracked my knuckles and prepared to blast him.  It didn't matter that this wasn't entirely his fault.  Or that he is actually a fairly nice fellow.  He was going to deal with this matter or know my wrath.

My email offered him several choices, one of which was the refunding of my money.  I have made several payments on this computer through payroll deduction and I was more than happy to have him just send me a check.  He responded quickly with a promise to check up on things.

This took all day.  You can imagine my mood what with all the scheduling and co-worker issues.  Fortunately, those things kept me fairly busy and, what with all the scampering around, I didn't have time to drive over to his office at the high school and bludgeon him.  

Just before the close of school, however, I received an email.  Its title said it all:

I HAVE IT!!!!!

An inexplicable failure to communicate the shipping information to the school had resulted in my computer not being included in the original notices.  My MacBook Pro was waiting for me at the high school.  

There was much dancing and whooping.  It was a little distracting to the children who were trying to finish up their work before going home for the day.  But, I fail to see how this was more of a problem for them than my incessant whining over not having a new laptop so their complaints were pretty much ignored.  I like to think that I'm teaching them a few life lessons in the art of "lightening up" in addition to Reading.  

My Cheerful Teaching Assistant and I hustled the last child off to their respective classrooms for dismissal and made our way to the tech director's office at speeds not normally advisable during the bus runs.  And there, as promised, were our lovely new laptops.  Sure, mine didn't have the new operating system installed.  But the disk was included so that was OK.  I can manage inserting a disk without too much trouble.  I even found it in my withered old heart to thank the tech director for all his patience and his efforts on our behalf.  In spite of what I believe was great sincerity on my part, I still got the distinct feeling that he wanted us to depart his office quickly.  I believe that this is also the end of the district's staff purchasing program.  At least that's what I think he said.  His teeth were sort of clenched and it was hard to make out...

But, it's all over.  The new laptop is home safe and sound.  It even seems to like its new surroundings and has identified the correct wireless signal.  I am now happily enmeshed in the process of changing a few things here to better accommodate my new faster and shinier lifestyle.

What does this mean for you, the reader?  I mean, besides not having to listen to me complain about not having my new laptop week after week...  Well, not a heck of a lot.  The biggest issues are email related.  I will be using my gmail address for much of my bloggy life.  But, trust me.  You will know me when you see me.  I am, however, one of those annoying people who have a few email addresses and use them for a variety of things.  And I happen to be having a heck of a time getting my "home/multipurpose email into this thing.  We seem to be having a difference of opinion with regard to what a POP server is.  We are working on it and should have it straightened out shortly.  But, if you are emailing me and not getting a response, you know what the problem is.  Sit tight.  I'm on it!!

I also suspect that I will be sort of engrossed in my new laptop and all the pretty colors.  Knitting and spinning activities may be curtailed briefly.  Not long...I am after all a Master Laceweight Spinner now and cannot abandon my responsibilities there, now can I?  Life will balance itself out shortly.  For the moment, though, I am happily updating my bookmarks and taking all kinds of ridiculous pictures of myself with the wee little camera thingie.  

Then there's the whole "having to work to pay this off" deal.  It would have been nice to get the shiny new toy on Friday so I could have fiddled with all this stuff over the long weekend.  But that wasn't meant to be and now I must do the fiddlin' during the work week.  ::sigh::  But, in the grand scheme of things, this is all really OK.

My baby is home!

SA