Hi, my name's Heather and I'm addicted to the Internet

I thought it was bad a week ago Friday when I came home to a message from the doctor's office and had to wait all weekend to call them back.

Then I came home from work this past Friday to discover I could not open any websites. I did the ipconfig /release and renew thing and saw I had an IP address. I tried to get online again and still could not. So, I reset the modem. Still nothing. I called Comcast. Twenty-six minutes later, Comcast Guy told me without a shadow of a doubt there was nothing wrong with my connection. That was a bit of a bummer for three reasons: first, he couldn't fix it. Second, I couldn't pitch a fit and demand a credit for not having service. And finally, James was my computer fixer.

My next call was to James' cousin. Her husband built the computer so I figured he might know a thing or two about fixing them. We went through some tests and determined, again, I did not have a hardware problem. So, I called the Geek Squad and impressed them with my knowledge of what wasn't wrong with the computer. After going over all my options, I decided it would be best for me to just take it in. After all, I couldnt' sit around and wait for them to come out and fix it some time this week since I couldn't log in to work from home. After my volunteer shift on Saturday, I dropped it off and sure enough, it had a nasty virus, which luckily, they could fix. They said it could take until Tuesday. Tuesday?! I was supposed to be cut off from the world for 4 whole days?! Oh the horror.

This got me thinking about how reliant we have become on computers. I had not yet Mapquested (is that even a word?) the directions to my volunteer project for Saturday. I planned to do that Friday night. Luckily, I had looked up the farmer's market where it was taking place so I had a rough idea of where it was and how to get there-from home. Problem was, I needed to get there from my chiropractor's office, which is on the other side of town and right off the freeway I don't usually take. Luckily again, I was volunteering with my good friend who was able to redirect me when I went too far north. (And this is why my friend tells me I need a GPS pretty much every time he sees me).

I had to use my cell phone to RSVP for bunco as I needed to do that by Sunday so the hostess could look for substitute players if needed. The hostess is a new permanent player to our group and I don't know her phone number and it is not listed.

I could not reply to Hands on Portland that I can't be a volunteer leader on 9/11 because I have to work and I learned from trying to RSVP for bunco that trying to e-mail from my phone is a real pain in the ass.

I could not check on the message groups I belong to when I was bored. Nor could I read the blogs I follow.

I could not look at and play with the pictures I took of the strawberries and flowers I bought at the farmer's market.

I could not start researching where my meetup group should have dinner next month.

I could not download the list of songs I e-mailed myself from iTunes. (And now my computer can't remember where most of my iTunes and Windows Media Player songs are stored).

I realized that I spend too much time on the computer and I really do need to get out more. I decided I would look into even more meetup groups than the 10 or so I am already in. And then I remembered: you need a computer for that.

It scares me how much we have come to rely on technology and how lost we are without it.