Transitions, Ink

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Withdrawal: It Isn't Pretty

I was just a basket case yesterday. Absolutely and positively out of my mind. By the end of the day, I figured it out. We were having our internet connection changed to a different company and a different kind of system (cable delivery instead of whatever it was before). All week I was worried that it wouldn't work properly and that we'd be stuck without a connection. Our house has "smart wiring" with a router, and the tech support people at the new company weren't sure it would work. And as the installation was under way, I was getting more and more agitated, as was my spouse. And the installer had to leave and it still wasn't working. We had a connection. It went right up to the router just as it was supposed to. But then it stopped. Oh no. We'd have to wait until our computer technician arrived (he was scheduled to come in the morning-is here as I write this). Meanwhile, I am always able to tap into several people's wireless connection from my laptop, but this is not an adequate longterm solution for a three computer household. I was offering my husband "fixes" as required. I had a menacing headache all day long that was not helping my mood. People were getting on my nerves. I missed an appointment. I cried during a panel discussion that I attended later that day.

By the end of the day I nailed the problem: My name is TI, and I am an internet/e-mail addict.

It's not how much I use, it's that I need to be able to connect. If I cannot connect, I feel agitated, I cannot think straight. I can sometimes go a few days without, for instance, when I am on vacation. But the craving sets in, viceral and fierce, as soon as I approach a computer with access.

2 comments:

Idiot Cook said...

Oh, boy. You know what? I know you say it in jest, but methinks many of us are Internet Junkies. Sometimes I think about taking the weekend off from checking e-mail. I can't. What did we do in, like 1990?

I hope everything's working better now...and that you're feeling better, too.

Hang in there. The semester is almost officially over...for both of us!

(No doing any defenestration without me, okay????)

Writer Bug said...

I'm right there with you! My neighbor and I share wireless, and sometimes the rooter goes down and I can't fix it cause it's in his condo. I go pretty crazy until it gets fixes. FC is right, what did we do before the internet???