And Then I Stepped in Gum . . .

Trapped by Technology

Well. Here I am, sitting in Atlanta Bread Company, killing time between dropping off Katie at school at 7:35 and going back to her school at 9:40 for an "event." (Her class of 12 has read 1203 books since January and have made a bookworm (out of paper links) to represent that, and they're walking the bookworm over to the upper school to show off. I'll be there taking pictures.)

Anyway, one would think that this would be an ideal time to get a little work done on the manuscript I'm copyediting. And I did think that. And then I got to ABC, opened up my laptop, and realized that it wouldn't recognize my mouse. @*&#*! Well, obviously, I can't work on the manuscript.

I have a love-hate relationship with my laptop (although I'm a little afraid to type that, worried that the laptop will read this post as I'm typing it in a HAL-like voice and blow up or something). It has never worked properly. I think there's something freaky in the wiring under the place where you rest your wrists, because I can be typing along, and somehow the cursor will jump up a paragraph and let me keep typing right in the middle of a previous sentence. Usually I notice, but there have been times I haven't, and that's bad for business!

Also, I don't get touchpads. I just don't. I know how they're supposed to work, but I can't get mine to do it. So if your laptop has a problem when you type and you can't navigate it to point-and-click, it's pretty worthless, right? Except that sometimes I need to get out of the house to work because there are so many things to distract me at home. I'm at a loss. I think about getting a new laptop, but I'm not so sure all my problems would be solved with a new one, so I stick this one out. Hey, at least it gives us an alternate computer for my daughter to play her horse-jumping video games -- when the mouse is working.

In other news, yesterday was our 8th anniversary. And, of course, we're just like we were as newlyweds. Except we spent the afternoon assembling nine mix-in-a-jars for our daughter's multitude of teachers. And the evening yelling at the kids to get them to sit down and eat dinner and stop fighting in the bathtub. And holding down the boy to get his jammies on while he raged at us. And reading Dr. Seuss books. And turning deaf ears to Katie's cries of "But I'm huuuuungryyyyy" after she was already in bed with the lights out subsequent to refusing the first meal that was offered to her and demanding chicken nuggets for which she decided she was not hungry by the time they were cooked and then refusing them a final time not 5 minutes before she went to bed so that they got thrown in the trash. But oh yeah, everything in our lives is just the same.

We did put a moratorium on TV for the evening and played Trivial Pursuit for Book Lovers, which we abandoned after only earning about two wedges a piece. We decided that whereas with regular Trivial Pursuit, sometimes you can guess, with this version you either know it or you don't, and often you don't. Also, if you don't know the answer, guess "Margaret Atwood." (Am I showing my ignorance to admit that I have no idea who Margaret Atwood is?) I was tickled to see a question about one of Jennifer Weiner's books, given that I'm a devoted reader of her blog. And we also exchanged little gifts which neither of us had a lot of energy to devote to picking out. And there was some romance. (We did, however, have to skip the semi-traditional paging through the wedding album and/or watching the amateur wedding video, as those are packed.) But still, I look forward to the day when we can make our anniversary the holiday it should be once again. Maybe that's why the 10th is such a big deal -- you can finally escape from the day-to-day tribulations of young children and get back to being more of a couple.

Preparations for the move are proceeding apace. And by that I mean, really not at all. We occasionally pack a box. We think we might move in the second week of June, which I'm panicking to realize is only two-and-a-half weeks away. We don't have a mover organized (still waiting on one more estimate). We haven't sold this house. We have only a tentative closing date for the house in NY, and I haven't heard anything about how likely that date actually is. We have a bazillion possibilities for getting selves, possessions, cars, and cats up to NY, and we flip through those daily. At the moment we're thinking that I might drive up to NY with Dave's car by myself and his guitars and other valuables/heavy things (movers charge by weight) to close on the NY house, then fly back for the move out of the AL house. Or maybe we'll caravan up, one kid and one cat to each car. Or maybe we'll leave Dave's car her and come back for it later. We just don't know. I'm waiting for some inspiration to come from the heavens -- something that says, "This must take place on this day." So far, it hasn't come. And really, winging it is not my forte.

All right, I've killed enough time with this. AAA is open and I can go pick up our maps for the trip to NY. And then back to the school for the bookworm parade. Maybe I'll get some work done later this afternoon. Wish me luck.

posted by Jennifer Morgan, at 9:36 AM