Life: BC  

As in, life before computers. Seriously, what how did we do research? Cyber-stalk our exes? Search for a new job, a pizza place, or directions to the nearest mall?

Last week, my world came to an abrupt, screeching, crashing halt, when my home computer... well... crashed. It was a slow, painful death, brought on by four years of not-very-up-to-date virus protection. The first sign of impending doom was a heart-shaped sticky note I placed on the monitor a few months back warning all potential users (basically DH and myself) to visit password protected sites at their own risk. The final symptom was the staggered, halting movement of our once-frolicking screensaver. Our old desktop-- the first major purchase DH & I made as a married couple more than four years ago-- was gone.

That in itself was traumatic. But then came news Thursday morning at work that our entire network had been infected with a virus, and our chief engineer handed out the same dire warning I had issued at home weeks ago: don't visit any sites where your information could be compromised. Forget my fears over accessing Facebook or Blogger-- how was I going to check my email? My online banking? Our stocks? Panic-mode quickly set in.

I said to a girlfriend earlier this week over coffee (coffee? not really... while she was enjoying a caffeinated beverage, I was sipping a steamed milk... how old am I, 5?), how on earth did we communicate with each other before the internet came along? I'm not young enough-- or naive enough-- to deny that I remember those days. I do. I remember them well. I remember being a senior in high school when I got my first email account, and I remember that about 95% of what flooded my inbox was pornographic spam because I had no idea what "privacy settings" were. I remember going to college and thinking AIM was the neatest thing around. I remember when my college was tapped as one of the "test schools" for Facebook, and loathing the invasive social networking site long before it became ubiquitous, not only on every college campus across the country, but in every office and home as well. (By the way, I'm now a rabid FB fan!)

The thing is, before computers (BC), life was significantly simpler. Want to talk to an old friend? Call them. Found a cool article you think your mom would enjoy? Send it to her in the mail with a quick note. The quantity of communication might have been less in those days, but I guarantee, the quality was far superior.

Back to now, though. After two days (yes, just two days; I made it two lousy days without internet access at home or work), I caved. My mom has been in town this weekend, and she offered to buy DH & I a new computer as an early Christmas present. So, tonight, I'm typing to you from the comfort of my own bed with a brand new laptop. Honestly? I hate it. The keyboard is finicky, the processor is burning up my lap, and it's kinda loud. But so goes technology. I'm sure I'll get used to this just like I got used to driving past the ATM in favor of online banking and checking stock quotes on Yahoo instead of how my dad did it, in the newspaper.