Luckily, in this computerized culture, some are willing to share their baby: their MacBook. For, right now, I have the utter privilege of using one of my housemate’s most treasured objects. I see the hype. This machine is very instantly gratifying. It seems to do everything faster and with less effort than my 3-year-old IBM T60, which decided to die last week.

When my computer wouldn’t start, it was like a car that I needed to drive was dead. I tried everything: jiggling the plug, plugging in and powering up over and over, saying a magic word before I pressed the button closing my eyes, hoping it would start. Nothing. On one occasion, it finally booted up. But after it hibernated, decided not to start up again.

I had to call for help. My father, a computer specialist but not a repairman, had no ideas. Enter LaptopMd. LaptopMd welcomed my computer and said they would fix it. “A short circuit on the motherboard,” they said. But my instincts told me it was the power cable.

A few hours and a same day service extra fee later, My IBM T60 was brought back to life before my eyes. In the store.

I brought it home and plugged it in only to have it not start. Another attempt. Same thing as before. Grrrr. I call back the store.

“Bring it back tomorrow.”

“I’m not in town till next week.”

I will have to wait, I realize. There is some meaning to this, I think.

I don’t really like to be an Internet Person or an E-mail Person, but it happened. The withdrawal has been quite a curve ball. But I see why it happened now. I have a job, a house, and a project demanding my focus. In the past, I have become dependent on the Internet to administer my life, searching for jobs, apartments, and communicating with people. Too much searching.

I wonder: maybe it is time to stop searching, have more faith that things will fall into place, and relinquish the control and managing we have over our e-mail accounts and pages and websites.

After all, this has been like a detox. I am unable to constantly update a Facebook status or check email five times a day. Until this thing is fixed, I only have privileges and visitation rights to my various internet “homes.” And you know what? They are not abandoned, they are all still in tact, and you don’t have to respond to people right away. There are plenty of other ways to wind down, like reading.

I think I’m gonna break out the stationary this week and do some letter writing to people I’d like to talk to or see. Like in a Jane Austen book.