Double Down-Up

On Saturday, my iPod froze. I was able to reset it, and it contined to work just fine, but quite a scare. Later in the evening, the display and sound on my cell phone *just* stopped working. OK, I dropped it, but there wasn't any alcohol involved in the mishap - promise. And then, our wireless Internet and cable modem crapped out.

On Sunday, I still could not do anything useful with my phone. I could hear it ring when someone called, and I could answer the call, but no one on the other end could hear me. And because Cingular Wireless is managed by an army of idiots, I couldn't get a replacement. Defeated, I went home and worked my engineering degree to the bone as I attempted to restore connectivity to the Internet. Yep. I turned the power on and off and unplugged and replugged that modem at least ten times. But no success. The cable modem kept blinking at "Send" and never made it to "Online."

And then there was Monday. A day without technology. Er, at home anyway. Yes, I sat in front of a computer and next to a traditional telephone all day at work, but do you know how stressful it is to not have a cell phone or a computer for an entire day? How about two entire days?

Three days? Don't even go there. Because on the third day, Tuesday, which will forevermore be referred to as my Sabbath, on Tuesday Techno-Goddess shined down upon me. She said, "Nic, I'm going to help you out here." And help she did.

In a last ditch effort to save my cell phone before wasting an hour on the phone with Cingular, I power on to find a lit display! I place a call and the person on the other end hears me. And I hear them! Mr. Comcast comes to my house and fixes my Internet connection. He doesn't damage my ego - the problem was with the signal being sent to our house. Woo-hoo!

And then, just when I don't think it can get any better, a nice big box from Dell is placed on my desk at work. And inside that box is my new laptop. MY laptop. MINE MINE MINE MINE.

I fought my engineering urge to go home and play on my new computer all night. I took myself to the gym. I completed my 6 mile tempo run. I did it in 51:30. I nearly had a heart attack when I looked at my watch and saw how fast I did the run. And then I nearly had another one when I realized that my heart wasn't really pounding too badly, nor were my legs feeling like jelly. I felt fantastic.

Scary, no? A double high a la Techno and Runner?