"The happiest days are when babies come"

So said Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, and she wasn't wrong. Meet my new baby: A pale blue 2025 MacBook Air.

 

I ran my old one into the ground. I'm very hard on my toys, plus I used it like mad during Covid lock down when my work computer wasn't operational. The battery was compromised and my keyboard was sticky, so on Thursday when it crapped out completely I was sad but not shocked.

I'm so lucky to live not-too-far from The Apple Store on Michigan Avenue. First of all, it's a gorgeous building on The River, and being there takes some of the stress out of being without a laptop. 

Second, the geniuses at The Genius Bar are unfailingly kind and patient. I was pretty sure when I went in that my laptop couldn't be saved, but we talked it through. The first genius, Jon, explained that just fixing the immediate problem would cost between $600 and $700. Did I really want to invest that in a five-year-old laptop with a faulty battery and keyboard? No, of course not. So then we moved on to selecting a replacement. 

Blue is my favorite color and I was happy they had a blue MacBook Air in stock. I wouldn't have risked ordering one. I know the fakakta Trump tariffs don't apply to laptops now, but who knows which way the winds will be blowing in the Oval Office tomorrow? (Does anyone seriously still think our President has a plan?) Sometimes things work out and I got one.

Then Jon told me that they would do a data transfer from my old laptop to my new one, free of charge. YAY! I don't know how this was possible, since the monitor on my old one was no longer working, but they are Genius Bar geniuses and they have their ways. The only glitch? It would take at least 24 hours. (Yes, most of my stuff was on the Cloud. But I'm a suspenders-and-belt kinda gal.) Oh! And Jon the Genius actually flirted with me. ("You have a very positive energy. I wish I worked on Sunday so I could see you again.") I guess I must be fetching when I'm borderline hysterical and wearing my Cubs jacket. Sometimes I think I must be the only age-appropriate single woman in Chicagoland.

So I was unable to bring the new laptop home this morning. Then I spent hours (and hours) trying to log back into my accounts. Then I took a nap. Being without a laptop was actually rather stressful!