My Apple-Induced Sin

Last night I had the great pleasure of completely frustrating my techie husband. After 25 years of marriage, I have to admit it’s fun to occasionally upset his apple cart—oops, did I say “Apple”?   I did the unthinkable to an IT geek such as himself.  Are you ready for my great sin?  Yep, I did it; I actually bought an Apple iPad. My husband has dominated and controlled all technology purchases in our household since the day we married.  After all, he’s the IT person. After years of technology submissiveness on my part, who knew I could be such a rebel?  But this time, to his complete and utter dismay, I had the final say. Poor hubby-- all he could do was simply stand there, shake his head, and let it be.  For once, this new gadget is completely and wonderfully mine.  After showing me the latest laptops, talking enthusiastically with the Windows guy at Best Buy, my hubby was completely confident he had sold me on a new touch laptop.  I stood obediently quiet and let him ask his “smart” questions and find the perfect laptop for  me.  In all honesty, I admit the snazzy new laptop he selected was pretty spiffy, but when I started calculating the costs, I couldn’t help but mentally compare the price to the iPad I’ve been wanting for months now.  I deposited the laptop and its accessories on the counter, abandoned my mortified husband and the overly-excited Windows guy who was drooling with anticipation of his latest retail sales victory, and purposefully started questioning the Apple guy.  It turns out my “evil Apple” product was cheaper!  My poor husband was devastated, but to his credit, he pretty much kept his mouth shut.  Anyone who knows my husband well understands what an accomplishment this was for him!  All that being said, I did catch him apologizing to the Windows sales guy for my poor judgement.  Then he had to excuse himself and go collect himself in another section of the store while I made the payment. Now, really, honey? Now it’s my mission to prove him wrong!

To explain the significance of this techie battle in our household, you must understand a few things about my family.  First, I  live in a household of geeks.  Everyone has their specialization in computer usage.  My husband and daughter are the business techies.  Hubby is in IT and absolutely loathes Apple products.  Daughter just graduated from college with a business degree and loves Apple for her phone and uses her iPad for Pinterest, keeping up with friends on social media, viewing recipes, etc., but like her father, does not see Apple products as serious business machines. She is fiercely loyal to her laptop for “real computing.” When she received news of my new purchase, her response was, “Mom, iPad rule—it’s not a laptop.” Like father, like daughter… what can I say?  My son, a recent high school graduate, is his own kind of techie.  He swears on the value of Windows products, but he secretly enjoyed his school-issued iPad this past school year.  I caught him! But he, too, is skeptical about my new purchase. As I worked to install my fancy Office 365 subscription on my new baby, he scoffed, “Mom, I wouldn’t have bought that. You can use free apps to do the stuff you do.”  Hmm, because we all know that I have no need for any “real” computing!  There’s an app for all that frivolous writing stuff I do on the computer. Can you understand my frustration with these people?

Secondly, it is very difficult to truly OWN my own devices in this house. We have purchased laptops for me in the past, but somehow MY laptop always becomes family property. Most recently, our dinosaur-era desktop suffered an agonizingly slow death.  It had been giving up little by little each day.  It had grown so slow in processing that I became accustomed to clicking on internet explorer then going downstairs for about 20 minutes and completing chores before expecting it to actually be ready for use. One day last month, without much warning, it simply gave up.  It had lived a long and prosperous life, so it was time, but its abrupt and complete demise caused hubby and I to have to share MY laptop.  Needless to say, this has not been going well.  In the summer, I enjoy blogging, working on stuff for school, keeping in touch with friends, etc.  Unfortunately, sweet hubby completely took over my laptop.  Worse than that, he did not seem to understand my despair with this situation. When I questioned him about purchasing a new computer, he replied that there were plenty of times the laptop was free for my use.  Umm, sure, that works perfectly if I like using the computer at midnight!

So, finally, here I am, celebrating my first technological victory in the Sartor household. I am perched comfortably at the kitchen table with my diet green tea and happily writing my first blog of summer 2014 on my iPad in Word.  After a few hiccups with getting an appropriate keyboard and case, I am officially in business. Hey, family,  as it turns out, Word works just fine on my new device. Imagine that!  Mom actually did her homework. And even better, while  I’m working, I can send an iMessage to my daughter, play my favorite Pandora playlist, check out a new recipe for dinner on Pinterest, transfer money using my bank app, check my email, take a picture of my adorable Boston Terrier, enter calories from lunch in my calorie counter, and the list goes on and on.  Sure, I know a laptop can do many of those things, but laptops are just so boring! My new baby is sleek, sexy, and incredibly rebellious.  Even middle-aged school teachers like myself deserve a little fun! I'm sorry, honey ;)