We usually have our important talks in the car.  So here we were, in the parking lot at Galleria Mall, picking up her last paycheck before heading back to “Fredtown”. 

She was a bit distraught and somehow I knew what it was.  I just knew.  She wasn’t sure she could even talk to me about it.  Embarassed, confused, unsure what would happen to her life and what she would end up doing after college.  I decided not to be upset and just let her get out with it.  We’ll deal with it one step at a time.

She thinks she might be a Mac user. 

It started innocent enough when her laptop plug jack broke.  She spent more and more time in the school newspaper’s office using one.  It’s all they have.  Just casually, mind you, then more and more.  Her friend is a dealer, working at one of the stores.  I’ll leave out her name, but let’s just call her “Shannon”.  Shannon is now talking up a super-thin notebook she can get for a sweet deal — if she converts over all her files from her laptop and leaves her old, PC life behind. 

And she isn’t sure she’ll ever go back, or if this is just a college fling.  What will she use when she graduates and enters the “real” world?  What if her Notebook just follows her through life right past graduation?  Will she be condemned to roam privately-owned coffee-houses and art exhibits?

Why couldn’t she just be pregnant or have an addiction or something?  I guess it could be worse.  She could be ultra-liberal.