Every time I make a purchase larger than the weekly grocery bill, I find myself essentially sleepless in Springfield. It's not that I can't afford it. I have no problem affording a high priced purchase for my children. My children tell me that they're old enough to take care of themselves and that it was time I took care of myself and put my needs or wants first.

Buying a new computer was no exception. Sleepless nights, indigestion, headaches and whatever rolls around with stress, the goblins of gobble-de-gook visited on a daily basis. At night, they returned as nightmares. After all that, the much-heralded arrival of the new machine amounted to a sigh of relief. Friends had encouraged me and mapped out my PC of the future. Others told me that I was too old. After all, "Who ever heard of an old dog learning new tricks?" I never thought of myself as an old dog. I just simply considered myself a timeless spirit fortunate enough to be endowed with the constitution of a horse.

I reminded myself of the past when learning overcame stress. Learning always has been second nature to me, like breathing in and breathing out. One of the first jobs I had was working in the PX. My guru tells me that is the abbreviation for POST EXCHANGE. That is how I met my husband. That also meant I had to learn a new language. English is not an easy language. I remind myself of the time when I failed to comprehend that wind and wind may look alike but there is a difference when you talk about the wind in the trees and the wind-up toy.

My second job was raising my children. There were no lessons on raising children, but I learned that too. The kids turned out fine in spite of my ineptitude. I learned the difficult lessons of American government in order to become an American citizen. When I decided to go for a college degree I learned again. That seemed like a hopeless case as well. High School was non-existent during the war years in Germany and without a High
School diploma; I was told I had to take the GED. I wasn't sure what it was but I found out. I received whatever degrees I needed. I did not want to become a teacher; I only wanted to write better. I became a teacher and learned to master the art of persuading young minds to learn. Those young minds taught me a lot.

Now I am learning once more. At least this time I know what a mouse is and what a search engine is and what it means to click left and to click right; to click or not to click, that is the question. Learning to master Windows XP was after all just learning. I tell myself that all those lovely colors and those cute little pictures are just so much eye candy; the trick is to learn how to digest without getting sick.

Having a friend to prod you along and to teach without letup helps. True, things are faster now. Thanks to all that friendly advice, I have two eighty gigabytes hard drives. There will be no more BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH, at least not from graphics the size of a house. If Windows can become more persuasive with each new version I fully anticipate a computer in the future that makes it superfluous to type. The marriage of mind and machine is eagerly anticipated by technophiles. I prefer to live in the present and enjoy what Windows XP offers. Windows XP had a few surprises in store. When I placed a CD in the CD Drive a lovely, brightly colored dialogue box descended with no less than five choices. I opted for Play Audio CD. I have no idea what is meant by Rip from CD. I don't want to rip anything at this point. I did want to listen. XP had one more surprise. Color swirls, lines and patterns appeared on the monitor. In the back of my mind I could hear distinctly: "Sit back old friend and ENJOY THE SHOW! You deserve it." And I did.