Gadget Girl

Yay! I just purchased a new computer! Well...a mini-laptop - it's got a nine inch screen and a little keyboard. It's got internal wireless and is preloaded with Windows XP. I got it with a DVD/RW drive so I can watch movies. It should be arriving in a week or so.

I've been doing the international thing for a little more than half a year now, and while I like it okay, I'm not enamored of it. And I think part of the problem is that it's hard to communicate with my family and my boyfriend from the UK. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Edinburgh and Belfast has potential. London is okay and Paris was lovely. It's just...

The sleeping thing is hard. We get to the hotel anywhere from 3am-5am eastern. The UK is five hours ahead of us so it's 8 or 10am there. I go to bed pretty uch as soon as I get in (well, I take a shower first) and I try to sleep for about 6 hours. I wake up mid-afternoon UK time, I try for around 3:30pm (10:30 est). Sometimes I go and sightsee, but mostly I find something to eat and meet up with my crew although I've been making more of an effort lately to use the gym facilities at the hotels to try to get off the ten or so pounds that I've gained over the past year. (BOO!) Lots of beer and lack of excercise are a bad BAD combo.

If I'm lucky, I manage to stay up until 11pm or so and then I wake up for my van at around 6am...for those of you playing along, that's 1am eastern. If I'm not so lucky, I fall asleep at 9:30pm and wake up at 11 or so and then I'm up. All night long. I usually read or watch some tv or wander downstairs to the lobby to use the computer.

I can't telnet on those computers. I have to be relatively quick and considerate of other people who want to use the computer (1 computer for a whole hotel? SUCK!). Plus the computer in EDI has a crappy keyboard which causes a lot of typos.

I've been thinking about this for a while - how can I make myself happier when i'm away from home? I don't feel lonely, I just feel bored. I need some kind of entertainment for all those nights where I just can't sleep. I thought about getting an iphone. I thought about getting an itouch more because it doesn't require a data plan, it only requires wireless access. But I still can't telnet on the itouch. And the mini-laptop? Same price, more functionality. Besides, I already have an ipod video.

My new laptop should be arriving in a week or so and I can't wait!