Maggie Rants [and Raves]

Comma-tose

by Maggie Franklin | February 2, 2011

I'm so easily distracted.

Seriously, I just got back to "real life" after a weekend of the ISSE show in Long Beach() combined() of course() with a trip to Disneyland. Quite frankly() I'm exhausted and my feet hurt.

Nevertheless() I made it back into the salon this morning in time() despite having to haul several rather heavy bags with me.

I got my laptop set back up here in the corner() the cell phone is on the charger() the new Gelish is on the polish rack() the new CND Scentsations are on the retail shelves() and new nails are on client Bethaney ... which is how I know that my camera didn't make it back to the salon with me. I think it's in a suitcase at home ... or maybe in the glove compartment of my car ... or maybe ...? Well I have no idea() but I'll find it somewhere.

And through the several updates to Facebook that I've made throughout the day I've learned that my laptop does not() apparently() travel well. This is my new Dell laptop with the OPI "I'm Not Really a Waitress" red cover. Less than a year old and this was only the second time I've ever taken it on the road with me. The last time was over a family trip in October; so when the computer came back with a sticky "9" key() I blamed it on the 12-year-old boy. But this time it has arrived back at it's place in the salon with the "9" key working fine again() but with an iffy left shift key and no comma. And I mean no comma. In order to type a comma now I have to lean on the key.

Mind you() I can type. Actually type. With fingers on the "home keys" and such. And I'm not bad at it — not great() but I can usually type as fast as I'm thinking. That means that now that I have to reach my pinky an inch farther to the left to get the fussy shift key to shift () it really throws my game off. And this no comma thing is ridiculous! How does this happen? It's a laptop! I'm SUPPOSED to be able to close it up and travel with it! Well() at least it's under warranty. I think they owe me a keyboard!

Which isn't even what I was going to talk about. In fact() I have a list of probably 12 things to rant about. And I know some of you are waiting anxiously for me to get around to some of those subjects. But I just had to gripe about the stupid computer. It's such a huge part of the way I run my business these days: My appointment book is on it() e-mail() message boards() my blog() and the ever-present Facebooking — and with my pet peeves about people who can't seem to be bothered with pesky things like literacy (i.e., capitalization and punctuation)() not being able to type commas and not being able to rely on my left shift key is rendering me journalistically paralyzed ... and nobody wants that() now do they?

BTW, since I don't have a comma() my trusty editor is getting this drafted with a bunch of ()'s in place of the commas. She will have to either go through and replace them all with commas — making it appear that I am hallucinating my comma issues — or she will have to publish the whole thing as I wrote it() in which case you will really need this little note to let you know that all those parentheses represent commas.

Maggie Franklin

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