Saturday I went to a mall in the East Bay specifically to compare the Dell laptop I wanted, and then go next door to the new Apple store to compare it to the Apple ibook G4. Of course, the best laid plans never pan out.

The Dell people didn't have the laptop I wanted because as the salesperson said, it's not a popular model and Dell doesn't know how the sales are doing. She said they might be getting it in a few months. She told me I could just order it online, and then if I didn't like it I could get a full refund in 30 days. Whatever!

Then I went to the Apple store where there was a line because the store was just opening that morning. I got a free t-shirt, and checked out the iBook G4 again.

I hate when I can't do comparison shopping. I want to be able to pick up the Dell laptop, and feel it in my hands and think about whether it's something I wouldn't mind carrying around in my bag every day. I pick up the ibook G4 and it's bulletproof casing built to take abuse by students, and I see myself carrying it around. I'm not in love with the touchpad, never did like those things but I suppose I would get used to it.

So still no laptop. I read reviews of both on C/net and the Dell laptop kind of got a bad review for it's bad battery, easy to dirty screen and its three-prong cord. The Apple iBook didn't fare that well either.

I hate when I can't buy something that I want. There's something seriously wrong with that. I have this vision of a laptop I think I need, the world is getting in my way.

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.