Gift No. 15 – Lunch with Friends

Today I had lunch with three friends after church at the re-opened Atlanta Bread Company (yea!) It’s so great to  be able to talk and talk about anything and everything – nothing work-related, nothing stressful. One of my friends has been going through a rough patch, so I regaled her with stories about my minor irritations. They’re the kinds of things that are funny only when you look back on them: my two-week cold, then my war with a computer virus, which led to customer support lines and a fantasy of carrying out a Facebook-Dad style shooting of my old laptop. (I finally broke down and bought a new low-end Dell.) My friend said her son could probably fix it if I wanted him to try. Earlier I’d been joking with my Dad about all the efforts I’d put into trying to save that laptop – two hour-plus calls with Dell and a trip to the Geek Squad. I felt like I was living through a digitized version of the old Ladies’ Home Journal feature “Can this Marriage Be Saved?” I’ve been through three different “counselors” already! But now, with this new offer, I feel a glimmer of hope … perhaps that busted laptop can be saved….