And What a Gift it Was!

So you all remember Bruce Bradbury of birthday fame (see post from 9.10.10)? He'd alerted me several days ago of the pending arrival of a birthday gift to me. He'd told me in error; he'd thought that he'd accidentally ordered something that was coming in my package and had requested that I send it back to them. This ended up not being the case, he told me to ignore it, and apologized for spoiling the surprise. I was curious but could easily wait until it arrived. Bruce had no need to worry about a surprise being spoiled, however. I was anticipating something sweet, something thoughtful, something Bruce. When the FedEx man appeared at my door this morning, however, I stared at the box - ambiguously labeled - and felt its heft. Taking the mysterious parcel into the kitchen, I carefully cut along the taped seam and peered inside. I was incredulous - and admittedly felt a little of that dazed feeling I experienced when I first found out I was pregnant (at Bruce's sister's house in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, no less)- for what looked up at me was the clean, streamlined box and handle of an Apple product. I pulled out the cardboard packaging materials and carefully lifted the little briefcase that housed a MacBook. Seriously. I'd recently told Bruce, who'd inquired about the computer I was using these days, and I told him I was still plugging away with my old, formerly school-owned iBook G4 that's been on its last legs for a while, and that I sometimes fantasized about one day owning a jazzy new machine. I believe those were the exact words I used. Just this very morning while turning on my computer, I rued the fact that I still had to go through the same process that teachers in Maine had to go through - clicking on the apple picture with "Teacher" underneath, entering my password, then seeing the map of Maine come up on the blue screen with the letters MLTI running across (I believe it stands for Maine Learning Technology Initiative. I could be dead wrong about that). No more! No I can pass my old Mac along to Zoe, who will hopefully get some good use out of the old beater (I'll leave all of my music files on it in hopes that the good tunes will infiltrate her impressionable, ten-year-old subconscious).

As I sit here typing, my fingers not yet familiar with this new (and oh, so clean!) keyboard, I'm still not quite believing my good fortune. And not just for the fancy new Mac, really. It's great. I love it. But to have a friend like Bruce...well, that's the best part of all.