But I neeeeed it

At open mic the other night, I was chatting with a fellow writer when lo! I was asked to join a weekly writing group.

You have no idea how exciting this is.

I have found my people. My tribe. My posse. People who love to write and who think debating the use of the Oxford comma is a great way to spend an evening. And where does this group meet? A coffee house. Of course. I have discovered Mecca.

I have been steadily peppering my poor husband with requests for a laptop for several months now. He has a wide range of reactions, ranging from "How's the budget looking?" when he knows I haven't updated it in a few months, to simply shaking his head and walking away. Sometimes he points out that I have a giganto iMac sitting in My Room at home, whereby I point out that it's giganto and weights a trillion pounds and requires an outlet. Then he shakes his head and walks away, while I follow behind, doggedly explaining that the iMac is my photography machine and the laptop would be my writing machine. I know he is convinced that my favorite hobby is sitting around trying to figure out ways to drain our bank accounts.

Now, though, it's all different. I have some really, really good reasons for getting a laptop:

1. I can't drag the iMac to the writing group every week.
2. I'm embarking on this NaNoWriMo thing and it'd be nice to not be tied to the house. I'm attending at least one write-in that I know of, with more on the horizon. Again, can't haul out the iMac.
3. There's inexpensive software I'd like to download for writing. It has a boatload of features I won't bore you with, but again, it needs to be on a mobile device. Clarification: a mobile device with a keyboard and a screen larger than my cell phone.
4. I have devised all sorts of clever ways to pay for it without really paying for it, which is really just accounting practices I've gleaned from Enron and Goldman Sachs and other upstanding companies who have exhibited creative financial trickery. "Hey, look, we have this nice rebate from the window treatments!" "Hey, I found some money through a health insurance deductible reimbursement deal at work." It's like free money! Only it's not when you really think about it so let's not.
5. I want it.

The poor boy is working his butt off in Shanghai this week, and has been the recipient of countless text messages regarding my quest to procure a laptop before NaNoWriMo. I have sprinkled in text messages about other, less important topics, such as Daughter Updates, and he responds to those so I know he's getting/reading them. He's become quite adept at completely ignoring the laptop missives. He's due home tomorrow night, though, and then the real onslaught will start. Mission MacBook commences for real in about 30 hours.

Wish me luck.

(Editor's note: an addendum has been added to the post below, required due to new information learned today. You may want to check it out. Then again, given the subject of that post, perhaps not.)