My Computer Shipping Experience

So I ordered a new laptop computer last week from Apple. I went the online route because The Apple Store scares me, and I wanted to pick and choose my features without being harangued by a goateed fast-talker. Also I've found that when you make major purchases online, there is a feeling that once you've clicked the Checkout button everything is beyond your control, as if you're at the mercy of the Moirae themselves and you can only just sit and track the thread of your life on FedEx.com. Which is what I did. Constantly.

The monitoring of an online purchase can consume your life - waiting for it to be shipped within the estimated time frame, praying for the carrier to be notified so that you can have an actual tracking number, some tangible proof that the item is on its way to you, refreshing the tracking page and charting the order's course through the country. Of course my computer was shipped on the very last day of the 'Shipping Estimate', torturing me daily with its depressing lack of progress. I could not have been more excited when it shipped, though - I found myself inhaling the scent of my new computer sac in anticipation (which of course arrived a week before the computer itself). I was a little taken aback when I saw that the item had been shipped from Shanghai, CN - my first thought was that it was a town in Connecticut, convincing myself for a moment that I had read somewhere that there was an Apple facility in Shanghai, Connecticut. It's the new Silicon Valley, right? When I reasoned that CN probably stood for China, I was deeply concerned about shipping time, but the next morning we're in Anchorage, Alaska battling nightstalkers, and later that night Indianapolis, Indiana chilling with Joseph Addai, and the next morning nestled safely in my arms in Chicago. Which is pretty amazing, right? The delivery estimate on FedEx was Thursday, but I got it on Tuesday morning! Which means it left Shanghai Monday morning and only took a day to get to me. Shanghai to Anchorage to Indianapolis to Chicago. A buddy of mine has a bootleg copy of that Steely Dan tour, by the way.

Anyway, despite the length of the shipping preparation, the actual tracking of the item could not have been more of a riveting whirlwind tour of the world. It was like an episode of Alias with my MacBook as the surprise villain! It's always a bit anticlimactic once that big purchase arrives, of course. You realize that your life is still continuing, that you have to run and get lunch before the cafeteria closes, that you're late for a faculty meeting, that your daughters need to eat dinner. Crap like that.

But the thrill of the chase remains.

BaeRating: A-