These Springstein songs remind me of my college boyfriend Drew from Bergen County, New Jersey. I have memories of us in Paramus Park Mall on Christmas eve shopping for presents of each other, and then how it was snowing when we left and how we were sliding backwards down this hill. Then driving across Jersey to visit some friend of his who lived next to a Hershey chocolate factory I think, and having to throw coins into all those darn toll booths. And hanging with him and his friends on some corner of some North Jersey town, me wearing his leather jacket and me thinking I was reliving part of some Bruce Springstein song. And that weird friend of his that I only met once and who we ran into at some classic american diner. As soon as we entered the diner, the guy comes up to us and says to me “I never forget a pretty face”. Like whatever.

Drew was going to school in South Jersey, and I stayed at his house at spring break. We tripped on shrooms and drove into Atlantic City at midnight with some friends of his, and wondered around the casinos. We watched some mafia types, all in dark suits and looking pretty dangerous playing Baccarat. Then I freaked out about the crippled woman manically playing on some giant slot machine in the front of one of the casinos.

Then we went to get something to eat, and everyone got carded except for me and Drew. The doorman took one look at us and waved us through. Drew and his friends spent an hour speculating why we didn’t get carded when everyone else did. They came to the conclusion that there must be unspoken rule in Atlantic City than when a guy is out with a jailbait looking girl, no one asks any questions. Drew’s friends thought I looked like I was in junior high.

What a fun night. That was the first time I had french fries with melted cheese on top. Then we went walking along the jersey shore and on the boardwalk, and then to a donut shop to eat donuts because we were all still starving.

I'm listening to the Bruce Springstein cd "Born to Run", and it makes me feel like I'm a college kid because that's when I think started listening to his music. My first roommate in college had picture of "The Boss" all over our dorm room. Paula was such a Chi-town North Shore girl, wishing she was a leather clad chain-smoking jersey girl. I only started liking Springstein because I was forced to listened to him for two semesters. I was a mod/goth girl wearing fishnets, clunky 60's shoes, hats with veils, and listening to The Cure, The Clash, Pere Ubu and Joy Division.

I've never understood the appeal of listening to only music from your past. It's kind of fun once in a while to listen to the music of my youth, but then I get depressed. I feel like another Springstein song "looking back on my glory days". And I'm like my "glory days" keep on happening, so what is there to look back at. And my best "glory days" are yet to come, and will keep on happening until that day I drop dead.

Whatever.

My all time favourite Bruce Springstein song "Meeting Across the River" is on this cd. I love this song. It still chokes me up whenever I hear it; the desperation in this song is so palpable. I think we've all been in this guy's position at some point in our lives, maybe more time than we would ever care to admit.

Just when I was all excited and set to buy a Mac laptop, a friend of mine told me that Dell just cut the price on their four pound laptop. It doesn't have a cd-rw like the Mac I-Book G4, but the price is pretty darn comparable because I wouldn't have to buy extra software.

I could buy a Dell laptop Inspiron 700m with Windows XP for Home for about $1,200. I have a Windows XP Pro installation disk at home, so I could upgrade it myself and I could load all my old MS Office 2000 software on it, as well Final Draft 6 which I can install on two computers. This laptop has a 12.1 inch screen like the Mac.

But not having a cd-rw is kind of a drag I think. Plus, I was thinking I could load mp3s on my mac laptop and use it like an I-Pod since I plan to carry the laptop around with me most of the time.

Decisions, decisions. There are two Dell stores in the area, which makes me think I need to check one of them out to see the Dell laptop in person this weekend. The stores are each an hour outside of San Francisco, but I need to see a Dell laptop in person so I can compare it to the Mac I saw in the Apple store on Union square.

My friend was telling I'm just inviting file transfer problems if I have a Mac laptop and a pc desktop. But the guy at the Apple customer service told me that the transfer issues have been taken care of.

I don't why people make such a big deal out whether you're a mac user or a pc user. I started out using a mac, and then I had to switch to a pc, but with the advent of windows, there really isn't that much of a difference I think.

I'm also defintely getting a new palm with a fold up keyboard. I need a new palm anyway, and I might as well get the fold up keyboard for those days when I don't feel like lugging around a laptop.

Something about my apartment is just not conducive to me writing. I can type out my handwritten notes at home, but writing on the computer is just next to impossible I’ve decided. Not sure why this is happening either, but it’s definitely happening. I kind of think it’s because I spent a year working at home, and I’m still suffering from the effects of that whole experience. Not being able to write at home is such a drag, because sometimes it just works better if I can type on a computer and hand write everything by hand.

So I’m looking at two options to my writing dilemma. The first option is two buy a new palm pilot with a fold up keyboard. I met a woman in my science fiction writing class who wrote all her short stories this way, and wrote a 200-page novel on her Handspring Visor. She carried her visor and fold up keyboard in her purse and since it’s so compact and small, she carried it everywhere.

I’ve been looking at the new palm pilots, and my current favourite is the Tungsten E. It’s not prohibitively expensive, and features a colour screen. I’ve been thinking it would be fun to have a palm pilot to check email or surf the net, but I don’t need all those bells and whistles if I all I want to do is use my palm pilot to type out my stories.

My second option, and one that I’m seriously considering, is getting a Mac laptop. It’s been a fantasy of mine to own a Mac laptop. I have a pc at home, but I’ve always wanted a Mac laptop. I looked at the I-book at the Apple store, and it’s so small and light and not expensive at all compared to comparable pc laptops.

I have to buy Office for Mac to make sure I can trade files back and forth, and I probably have to upgrade my Final Draft screenwriting software so I can use it on both a Mac and a PC. Final Draft 7 is cross platform, and with one license you can install it on both a Mac and a PC. This must mean I’m not the only one who has a pc and a Mac.

I’m definitely getting a new palm. But I’m still up in the air on the Mac laptop. I just wish PC laptops weren’t so expensive compared to a Mac laptop, because then I’d probably get a PC laptop. But that Mac price is just so attractive!