Laptops! I have 2 now!

I bought a new laptop last summer. I am certain that it was defective because in about 2 weeks the screen went crazy horizontal lines - no normal screen sights at all. I took it in to the computer big box store and 5 weeks later, they sent me a new one. First they lost it, then they apparently hadn't typed in my correct phone number, so they sent me a nasty email that said "we have tried to reach you, your computer is ready, come get it." Hooray! then a few months later, I dropped it on the tile floor. It still worked fine but the external box on the left by the hinge was severely dented and closed funny.

Since it still worked fine, I was too embarrassed to take it in for repairs, so I waited until this spring to take it back. I took it in, along with my external hard drive so that they could back up all my new stuff onto the external drive. They called me a few days later to say that the external drive was ready. I went there to pick it up, and they had lost it! Stolen, destroyed, lost, who knows where that thing - mind you with all my stuff on it - was.

Someone there with a few brain cells went and retrieved my laptop from the warehouse (where it goes to be sent off to Sony for repairs) so that the data could be backed up onto a new external drive. Whew. Then they couldn't find the laptop AGAIN!! I was furious. When I went to pick up my laptop, it had been sent back, yet not repaired!

I'm going to skip over all the back and forth and trips to the store and complaints and people passing the buck and so on etc. I will skip ahead to a call I received from the store manager telling me that, because of the bad service that I received, they wanted to GIVE ME another laptop! OK, but what about the one that is @ Sony, supposedly being repaired? Oh, that one is yours, too. This will be one from us to show us our sincere apologies.

I might also mention that right before this call that I received, on my last trip to the store, I had  requested a letter, signed by someone at the store, that stated that the store LOST my external hard drive and took responsibility for that loss. Yes, they replaced it, but it had a lot of personal, private information on it. I wanted some proof in case my identity got stolen somehow, that could trace it back to that. The manager said that he was certain that the hard drive was destroyed.  Apparently when they transfer data from one old external drive to another new one, they destroy the old one. I certainly hope that is what happened.

So, now I am enjoying using 2 computers at once! I can research on one screen, write on the other....so much easier than tabbing back and forth.

I guess it pays to complain sometimes. And ask for proof of loss.

Editor's approval!

My current writing assignment was supposed to be finalized last Wednesday, but the original instruction was that I could write 50 to 70 or more articles out of a possible 200 or 300 titles.  I asked for a short extension to Friday, which was granted. On Friday, I wrote my editor and said, I can keep writing if you need me to? Each article is supposed to be 500 to 650 words. He wrote back on Sunday that what I had written was "certainly fine so far" and that I could keep at it this week, no worries.

"Certainly" makes up for those 2 rejections that I keep trying to "reject" out of my memory!

I'm too busy to be unemployed!

Not to be too distracted by the 2 rejects that I received from one publisher, for 2 very small articles, I decided to move on.
I spent the better part of 2 weeks in May enrolling teachers in their choice of insurance benefits for a broker friend of mine. I like doing this type of work; I'm not really selling but my expertise and knowledge of the benefits and the insurance business is greatly appreciated by the majority of the people with whom I sit with while explaining their options.
In between the 2 weeks that I was enrolling, I spent a week or so with a friend in Cuenca Ecuador. She and her hubby have listened to me talk on and on about Ecuador for almost 20 years and they decided that, maybe we should just up and sell the farm (literally) and go. They did, last winter, and love it there - no regrets. So I had to go, see them, check out the new pad, enjoy the gorgeous weather, flowers, food and good company -- and I had a blast. Wish my hubby went with me, too, but, somebody has to work...harder than me, anyway.
I'm working on finishing an assignment for the one publisher that I have actually been successful - and who has actually paid me!! but it's been a bit slow going as the articles are all about medical conditions and I have to do a lot of research to get it right.
Next, I have applied to no less than 3 other publishers to hopefully! be approved/hired/accepted to write for them. I can't live on the one assignment about every month and a half that I do receive currently.

I had plans to re-arrange the "office/guest room/bicycle stuff room" to be my office, buy a new desk, throw out the junk I haven't used for years... For the last 2 years, my office has been the dining room table...and I believe that I like being able to look out the front window at my favorite tree, be close to the fridge for snacks, and put my feet up on one of the other chairs. Here's a pic of my new Sony Vaio laptop on my messy "desk"!