No rest for the… wicked?
I just put my niece back to bed for the 15th time in an hour and a half.
I remember Mom telling stories about me getting out of bed as a little girl of 4 or 5, sitting on the basement stairs as quietly as possible until some adult happened to find me or I gave myself away. Apparently, I didn’t want anything - I was just afraid I was missing out. What is the old saying about the sins of the fathers? Does that apply to aunts, as well?
I’ve been spending one night a week at my brother’s house for the last several weeks now. My sister-in-law works a night shift and leaves for work around 9:30, and he’s working a job that takes him out of town Monday through Thursday - someone has to stay with Wia and Emma. They warned me coming in that Wia doesn’t do a very good job of staying in bed… it’s so bad they have to 1) threaten to take away all her “babies”, and 2) promise that come the weekend, they’ll be able to pull several fully grown quarters from behind her ears. Some nights are better than others; last Monday she didn’t get up one single time after I put her to bed. Tonight, 15 times and counting. I think she’s just afraid of what she might be missing, which is simply me surfing the internet, silly girl.
What this is ultimately doing for me, however, is NOTHING. I’m already sleeping on the couch, and so I have back pains for at least the next day. Now, in addition to that, I’m actually losing sleep to get up with her and put her back to bed! I keep thinking, what would I do if it were my child? At almost 3, she’s definitely old enough for the big girl bed, but I think I might put her back in a baby bed. Or at least threaten it. Seriously. Thank goodness she’s so cute and sweet, or I might have to restrain her somehow. Tonight when I got here she sat on my lap, facing me, as she always does and said “I hope you can stay, Aunt Amanda.” Just kill me now.
Technologically challenged
I’m sorry, internet folk. I’ve been needlessly quiet over the last week or so, and my only excuse is the depression that’s sucking me under. What’s causing it, you ask? Let me tell you. Last week, my beloved 2 year old Inspiron E1705 (Ralph) started flashing its wee battery indicator at me… amber, amber, amber, green. Which means temporary battery failure, or, more like D-E-A-D. Over the next couple of days the keyboard began to fail, and the trackpad began to move v e r y s l o w l y. Then, on Saturday, it gave me an error. Something about a file missing, and it wouldn’t boot into Windows! The horror! I called Dell’s tech support, and since I could get it to boot from the CD the “agent” suggested that I do a system restore. This puts everything back to factory settings, and he was sure that would fix the problem.
It didn’t.
I called back on Sunday and managed to get the boot issue fixed, but the keyboard and trackpad are so unbelievably slow that I can’t go about reinstalling and restoring all my files from backups. The “agent” said he would send me a new keyboard, but as of today it hasn’t shown up. I called again today, and the new “agent” said the chat session (apparently chatting is faster than speaking over the phone - who knew?) from Sunday ended before that “agent” could place the order. GAH!
Oh, and by the way, today I’m getting the original error again. It will eventually boot into Windows, but evidently a bad keyboard can cause this error. So, if I had installed a new keyboard before doing a system restore, I wouldn’t have to reinstall anything. Great. Thanks for telling me that NOW.
Don’t get me wrong… I have a backup desktop (George) I can use, but I don’t like to. I enjoy being able to sit in the relative comfort of my couch, watching (or listening, rather) to the background noise of the TV or iTunes while surfing. George is also not as speedy as Ralph, with his Intel Core Duo… he can run virus scans AND browse the internet with ease!
I’m a big weenie. Mostly I’m just upset because I don’t like it when my technology fails. I’d rather get a brand new laptop than fix the one I have, because now it’s not perfect anymore. I know, it’s nuts. Just call me crazy.
Is there a word for this?
Uninspired? Unmotivated? I can’t think of the word. I’m feeling a little ennui right now, I think, and that’s causing the lack of posts. I have so many things saved up to write about, but that would require me to sit down and actually write. Mom’s here this week, so I don’t know if I’ll have much time, but I’m going to try. Stay with me, people!
