Mixed Sports Metaphors

Inspirational song: You Better Think (Aretha Franklin)

So there we were, my credit card and I, seriously studying the descriptions on all the laptops in Best Buy. My credit card was in a three-point crouch, ready to spring into action when I gave my hard count in my best Peyton Manning voice, "Omaha! Omaha!" (I don't really have a good Peyton Manning voice.) All we needed was a sales rep to talk things over with us. I wandered around, looking at every single laptop two or three times over. One associate was with a man asking a lot of questions. Another was by their customer service desk handing something to another customer. I waited. I did another lap of the displays. And another. No one so much as made eye contact with me, much less actually asked me if I needed help. So I decided they didn't need my money, and I left.

I tried another store. Same problem. I stayed there about as long, and got as little notice as the first. A third, smaller store had a sales associate who spoke to me, but had an odd, off-putting manner. And since the store was smaller, they only had one laptop in stock that was a touch screen, and it was nowhere near what I wanted. My confidence was shaken. I was 0-3. I had already driven to two different towns to strike out repeatedly. I tried one more town, this time up where I often go for Target and movies. I was tired and hungry and decided to regroup with soup in a bread bowl. Finally, I thought, I would try Staples, and if they didn't have it, there was nothing left but to order online and wait.

It was different from the start. I immediately got approached with an offer of assistance, and the young man knew his way around their selection. He was ready with good answers to all my questions. He had a strong favorite machine, and a clear explanation why it was something he would recommend. Was it so hard to get someone like this guy? Apparently it was. But happily I did find him eventually. I had a decent idea of what I wanted by the time I got there, from all my reading and quiet contemplation. So when the laptop he indicated ticked off all the boxes AND cost a couple hundred less than I expected, I didn't wait. I bought it on the spot. I acquired the football, so to speak. Here I am now, with my first laptop in two years, trying remember how to do all this stuff. It's coming back to me, slowly. Two years only using an iPad and a phone will do that to you. This whole Windows 8 stuff is going to take getting used to though. I feel so old.

I spent the last couple hours typing my NaNoWriMo novel into Word. The bad news is that I don't have as many words as I thought I did. I'm probably a few thousand words behind where I thought I was, and several thousand behind where I ought to be by now. I'm glad I went ahead and started putting it in digital media. This decision was a home run.