I placed two calls to Staples Corporate before yesterday’s MRI. On the second call, the receptionist suggested I speak to a manager. I decided to leave one last message for the individual I was told to contact. When I did not hear from him later in the day, I asked to speak to his supervisor. What had I been waiting for? The supervisor handled in one hour what I waited 10 days to find out. A resolution. And a surprisingly fair one at that. Ryan offered two options. The first: send the computer to their repair department, which would take two weeks. The second: a new computer equivalent in value. They both have their pros and cons – the first con is the extended time period – two weeks is too long, but I retain all my software and the familiarity of my computer – the second seems the better choice but I lose important software (like Microsoft Office), on the other hand I get a newer computer with Windows 8.

If you’ve not had the pleasure, MRI’s are painless but noisy. Ridiculously so, even with headphones playing the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Chris, the young man who was my tech looked too young to know what he was doing. But he did (I hope!) and he was a Jets fan. I found this out when I asked if he ever heard how noisy these machines were. He told me he had – when he was younger (how much younger could he get?) and got a concussion while playing football. So I asked if he was a Jets fan and he answered, “Unfortunately.” We laughed.

Sometime in the next week I will re-enter my local Staples store to begin the process of transferring all my stuff to my new Gateway nv570p09u. I would do it today but there’s too much to do before tonight. Which reminds me – however you choose to celebrate – alone or with friends, drinking or sober,  intimately or partying – Happy New Year, 2014!