Tantrums
My husband tells me I’m not good with change and I laugh at him. But after this weekend, I have to admit (dammit) that he’s right.
I’ve been complaining about my computer for months. It’s old and slow and the battery dies after about ten minutes. If I happen to have my calendar open at the time the computer shuts down, it messes up the sync with our phones and my husband has to spend hours fixing it. It freezes every time I copy something and try to paste it somewhere else. Word randomly stops working, only to restart and randomly still have my saved work. Shockwave doesn’t work and makes my computer freeze—have you any idea how many ads on the Internet use Shockwave? It’s a bit ridiculous.
I’ve tried to fix the problems. I took it to the Geek Squad and they fixed most of the problems, only they came back a few weeks later. I bought a new battery and it’s definitely an improvement, but, well, it’s only a matter of time until that one runs out too. And honestly, if I mess up the calendar one more time, my husband might actually explode.
Apparently, my parents heard my complaints (or maybe my husband muttering) and decided to get me a new computer for my birthday—the old computer is preventing the writer from writing, horrors!—which was awesome! Truly it was! Except that they got me a Mac.
I like Macs, or I did before I got one. They’re sleek and light and do cool stuff. I know this because The Princess got one for her birthday and has been showing me all the neat things it does. Since most of what she shows me, however, involves putting One Direction screensavers on it, identifying every One Direction member by sight in her photos, listening to One Direction music while supposedly doing her homework, etc., I’ve only paid attention with a teeny part of my brain (the rest is busy trying to figure out when this phase will pass and how to survive until it does), so I’m not an expert, by any means.
When I opened my present, I was shocked. My husband was thrilled—not only would I not complain anymore, but I wouldn’t kill the calendar and he wouldn’t have to be involved with helping me, since he doesn’t have a Mac—it was like the trifecta of perfect for him. The Princess was excited because now she could show me how to work everything and all the cool features. And Banana Girl started scheming how to get my old computer.
Everyone was thrilled, until I actually started using it. Because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I didn’t know how to use the track pad, I couldn’t figure out how to get the Migration Assistant to work—my old computer kept losing the connection, I didn’t know how to move my email or my folders or my pictures and I didn’t know any of the Mac shortcuts that supposedly make Macs so much easier to use.
So, I threw a tantrum. All. Day. Long.
“I can’t dooooooo this!”
“I want a magic fairy to wave her wand and make this work!”—(I think this was my husband’s favorite)
“Aaaaaacccccckkkkkk!”
“Why the bleep isn’t this working?”
The last time I threw a tantrum, I was two. There was something in a store that I wanted, my mother said no, I ran down the aisle, fell and split my head open. It was the last time I ever threw one. And I was pretty proud of that fact; I’d learned my lesson. Until Saturday.
I threw such a tantrum that no one yelled at me or asked me to do anything. They all looked at me, then looked around for the easiest way to disappear. When they couldn’t find any, they sat there and waited for me to stop. They didn’t complain that I was preventing them from watching TV (I was a bit noisy). They fed themselves. My husband answered whatever questions he could and then happily went off to do errands. He didn’t call once to ask about something on the list. The Princess volunteered to transfer things from one computer to another. Banana Girl invited friends over to do homework and snuck them into the basement, shut the door, and didn’t ask for anything the entire day.
It was a bit embarrassing. I did not throw anything (or anyone), I did not break anything and I did not split my head open (although I did give myself a headache). By the end of the day, I hated the Mac a bit less than I did in the morning. And by the end of the weekend, I had figured out most of what I wanted to do—my husband still won’t let me touch the calendar.
And The Princess was awesome. She came over every time I asked for help, even if she’d already shown me how to do something.
I learned a few things this weekend.
1. I owe my family an apology, because I did not give them the best weekend. And they were wonderful despite my behavior.
2. My parents really do pick out great presents.
3. Apple needs to learn from Samsung’s technology and invent something so we can bump computers together and magically transfer all info from one to the other (I’m thinking I have a better chance of that happening then a magic fairy.).
4. While tantrums are less dangerous than they used to be (for me), they’re still stupid.
5. The Mac is pretty cool.
6. I am not good with change.
