Confessions of an iPad Addict

Hello, my name is Leah and I am addicted to my iPad.

Like any addiction, it started harmlessly enough. When my old mp3 player died a couple years ago, I got a vibrant pink iPod; when the same happened to my old PC, I replaced it with a Mac Mini. At this point, I was converted to the Apple ways, but felt like it was just a healthy appreciation for a line of reliable, simple, elegant products.  Then, last fall, I saw “The Ad”.

It looked so cool! I felt like a kid who wanted a toy… one way out of my price range. So I swept my iPad dreams aside. Sure, it would be cool, and maybe even useful for school, but I could do without one. No, it definitely wasn’t worth it. I really didn’t need it. Really.

Just after I had convinced myself that I really, really didn’t need one, though, my dad won one at a conference. Even better, my family (graciously) decided that I was the one in the family who would be able to use it most since I was in school. I was ecstatic. It was a beautiful, magical gadget and I spoiled it thoroughly. I named it (“Mononoke“), bought it a beautiful case to keep it safe, and bought a pricy Gelaskin to make it unique and even more beautiful.  Within a few weeks after getting my iPad, I didn’t know how I had ever gotten along without it. How could I have possibly lived without having access to the internet constantly at my fingers? How could I have ever gone without playing Angry Birds or Robot Unicorn Attack? And as a humanities student with tons of readings, I saved a ton of money by using my iPad instead of printing everything out. I had a wonderful year with Mononoke, but all things must come to an end.

My parents live out in the boonies, you see, so their internet service sucks. Their connection is so inconsistent that I’ve gotten accustomed to thinking that they don’t have any access at all when I visit. That’s frustrating for me, but even more frustrating for my mother who has to live with it! So when I last visited them in Kamloops, we had the brilliant idea of testing my iPad’s 3G connection to see if it would work more consistently. The experiment was a success; the iPad’s connection actually worked, which was a step up from what they had before. So it was decided that my mom would keep my 3G-capable iPad and I would get a new iPad 2 (without 3G, saving a bunch of money since I’m always near free Wi-Fi). This plan was win-win: I would get a brand spanking new iPad 2 and my mom would have access to good internet. But I didn’t realize that getting a new iPad wouldn’t be as simple as going up to Future Shop and getting one the next day. They’re so in demand that nobody has any in stock; I would have to order one, and suffer two to three weeks of iPad deprivation.

I thought I was prepared for this until I left Kamloops. I felt something missing on the trip back to Victoria, and by the next morning I was thoroughly disgruntled that I couldn’t check Facebook while watching TV (as is my usual routine). I was angry that I couldn’t play Angry Birds. In a couple short weeks, my Facebook and Google Reader checking has been cut drastically, and I still find myself looking for my iPad. It didn’t take me too long to again realize the obvious: I have an addiction. Now does this mean I have realized how dependent I am on technology so I am going to cut back? Hell no! I already ordered a new pink cover and adorable Gelaskin for my iPad 2, have already named it (“Mononoke II”), and am tracking its progress online from the factory in China to my door. If it gets here tomorrow (like it’s supposed to) I am going to jump up and down hysterically like a child who’s been given an espresso shot.

My month of R&R

Hello all and welcome to my triumphant return to blogging! Why was I not blogging the past month? Well, it was a mixture of final exams, laziness, and some fun travel time.

I decided to take the month of April off to relax and get a little “summer” vacation in before I started working at my various summer jobs. As a reward for making it through my undergraduate degree (and waiting patiently since my last big trip three years ago) my fiancé Ross and I went to Tofino and Long Beach just before Easter weekend. It’s been a dream of mine to walk along that beautiful beach ever since I moved to the island, so I was very excited to go!

As soon as exams were out of the way, we got ourselves packed and braced ourselves for the six-hour bus ride. The first four hours weren’t so bad, actually, but in the final stretch between Port Alberni and Tofino the highway became a roller coaster. I’m usually really good in vehicles and don’t get any kind of motion sickness, but I started getting pretty nauseous with an hour still to go. Getting sick in front of a busload of people is not my idea of a good time, so I thought I should go to the washroom so I could be sick in peace. Bad idea. If there’s one place you don’t want to be with motion sickness, it’s a bus washroom: a windowless, foul-smelling broom cupboard being thrown unpredictably from side to side. On the bright side, my regular seat felt a lot more comfortable after I made it back.

Once we arrived in Tofino, we walked a couple blocks to the Cable Cove Inn. Our room made me forget all about the bumpy bus ride:

Our room at the Cable Cove Inn.

The next couple days were a fabulous mix of enjoying bubble baths, watching the sun set from our private deck, watching movies in bed on my iPad, and enjoying a heavenly hot stone massage. It was amazing just to be able to do whatever I felt like doing that day. There were no schedules to stick to, nothing that had to get done. A nice refreshing break from the usual hectic pace of my life.

Me enjoying the sunshine on our private deck.

Long Beach was also a magnificent treat. The beach itself is hidden from the road by trees, so it was a big surprise when I finally stepped out onto the beach. Unfortunately, Ross didn’t get a picture of my reaction to seeing it for the first time; he said I looked like “a child seeing the ocean for the first time.”  I couldn’t get enough of looking at the sun sparkling on the water and the waves rolling in and out.

Long beach.

We walked for two hours on Long Beach (they weren’t kidding when they named it!) and finally went back to the inn for one last night of rest. But when we got to our room, there was a surprise waiting for me: one of the inn’s managers had discovered that it was my birthday that week and baked me a raspberry lemon cake!

My yummy lemon raspberry birthday cake.

It tasted as good as it looked.

It seemed like all too soon we had to head back to our humble home in Victoria. But I wasn’t able to settle down for too long, because a couple days later I was on my way to Kamloops to visit my family. I had a great visit — not to mention two birthday cakes — with them, despite being out of commission for a few days with a cold.

Now I am back to the grind in Victoria and have 3 jobs (don’t ask me how THAT happened!). But, considering how spoiled I was in April, I have no complaints. ^_^

My favourite picture of the trip.