Hello, my name is........and i'm addicted to the internet

So I was sitting in front of the pc, relaxing last saturday evening, from a hard days work doing my "usual" thing: surfing the blogesphere, of course. I know what you're thinking...Ewww, Ms. Boring, sitting home alone on a Saturday night. Well, lemme tell ya, the weekend is just the same as the weekday to me. I worked all day and by the time i get home, do my little household chores, fix dinner, get a shower and change clothes, i'm lucky to even stay awake. Besides...at my age, the phrase "It's the weekend Baaaby!" is overrated. I like "Quiet time." Reading, listening to some smooth jazz, chatting with a friend or two, sippin' on a glass of wine or soda...Ahhh, yea easy does it, the slow pace. Coastin'....

So, anyway, as i'm going through the blogesphere, i begin reading a post from

Anonymous Midwest Girl

It was a post she'd done on March 15th concerning downtime meaning time without the internet. Apparently, while she was at work, the system went down leaving her with nothing to do. It was an extremely funny and true to life post especially for me. I didn't realize it at the time i was reading her post, that is until...it happened to me.

On this particular evening, i didn't stay up too late. I finished reading a few blogs and went to bed. When i woke up the next morning, i came over to the pc to start my morning music and get ready for work and the nightmare began. I had no internet. It seems that my 2wire portal monitor wasn't connecting. I'm supposed to have 3 green lights on at all times when connected but instead, it was only showing the top and bottom as green and the middle light was orange.(that's the broadband link) Okay first, i freaked out. Second, i said to myself..."Damn, i knew i shouldn've done something when i noticed that middle light flashing orange occasionally six months ago." But NOOOOOOOOOOOO, that's me....Ms. Procrastination.

I really didn't have time to get into trying to figure out how to fix the problem since i had to get ready for work so i just said the heck with it and went into the livingroom and turned on some music via my home theater system ~aka ~ The Monster Sound Machine. Whatever works, 'cause i gotta have my music in the morning. When i got home from work, i peeked into the computer room hoping that the orange light would miraculously be green and that it was just a temporary power outage problem or something, but no go. It was just wishful thinking on my part. That only left one choice...I had to fix it. UGHHH... Of course, I'm panicking at this point because i have no idea what to do. I try going to the home portal page and it all looks Greek to me so before i do something i'm sure i'll regret, i make that wonderful phone call. Yea, you guessed it, Tech Support. My best friends, my rescuers, my mentors, my neighbors from India. Yep, India...Whew!!

Actually, it wasn't all that bad this time. I called the phone company and went through the automated system...pressing the buttons(you know, but anyway)after a few menus, i was finally connected with a human voice, and her name was Edna. She was very polite and extremely helpful. She had me back online inside of 15 minutes! She even emailed me twice with 2 sets of instructions on how to fix this issue should it ever happen again--which by the way, i need to print out because if i don't and this happens again, i won't be able to retrieve the information to fix it. See, i'm procrastinating once again...No, after this post, it's next on my list.

All i can say is that i now know that i am completely addicted to the internet. I have no idea how i went so long in my life without it. I guess if you don't know how helpful it is or can be, you don't know what you're missing out on. And boy, was i ever crabby without it. It's kinda like coffee. hee hee