My World Is Blank

It's been a hectic week ...

And I just wanted let the one or two people who may stop by know that I am not intentionally avoiding them. Although I did run and hide when the Fedex guy rang the doorbell in order to spare him the horror of seeing me in yesterday's sweats, a t-shirt with a salsa stain on it, no makeup, and unwashed badly-in-need-of-a-haircut hair.

Things just haven't been going right.

My brand new Dell laptop arrived with a damaged LCD screen.

After an hour on the phone, speaking to a half dozen different people that I could barely understand, they finally agreed to send a repairman to fix the problem. I stayed at home an entire afternoon, until finally a slightly creepy, Dennis Kucinich-looking nerd arrived at the door with a new LCD inside a dented box. I opened the door and the guy said, "I'm here to fix your computer, can I use your bathroom?"

Um, a little weird.

Soon the guy went to work on my computer, spreading his tools across my good coffee table. Then, during idle chitchat, the weirdo geek proceeded to tell me a slightly disturbing story about a nice, young women in a compromising photo and Internet safety.

Okay, I was beginning to get a little nervous here, but my gut feeling was telling me everything was all right. Still, I was thankful my twenty-three year old son was at home, upstairs, quietly studying.

And now you must know that my son is not a great big football player, he is a classical musician who practices Yoga and weighs 150 pounds soaking wet. And he would never hit anyone, in fear of injuring his hands. So if confronted, my son would probably kick and run. But this guy didn't know that. So I made certain to let it slip out that my college-age son still lived at home and that he eats a lot and and is very athletic. That oughtta show the guy.

Finally the computer was fixed and the squirrely-geek was gone, and I felt much better about giving Dell $700 of my and my husband's hard-earned cash.

Then, a week later, as if it were a black hole in space, my computer screen went completely blank. Nothing.

This time hubby gets on the phone, who ironically is much nicer than I would have been.

To make a long story, well, longer, Dell has our money and we have to wait 3-4 weeks for a new computer.

So in the mean time, I am making due. I am a laptop moocher, begging and borrowing from my two college kids. And let me tell you, it is not easy. I never knew how addicted I was(!). That darned Internet, blogging, email, instant news thing is an undeniable lure.

On the good side, I have organized my recipe file, read a novel, and caught up on some much needed housecleaning.

But I am still a night owl and lie in bed wide awake at night, yearning for a fix. Just a few minutes at the keyboard, I think to myself, just a few blogs to check, some emails -- but nothing, my world is blank.