Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Why I Have Nothing to Bring to Critique!

(I wrote this piece after missing two critique sessions in a row at my writer's group because I had nothing to bring.)

Why I Have Nothing to Bring to Critique!

Ah, the ultimate writing prompt, inviting excuses of crashed computers and clogged schedules. I could blame my new dog, or the tantalizing spring weather, or perhaps my brother, who spends hours each day talking to whoever he can find. I could also accuse myself of spending too much time on facebook (which I don’t, trust me.) But I would be lying if I didn’t charge Technology for causing the bulk of the troubles. Technology, or rather the failure of it, has caused my family more headaches than last month’s eight-inch slush storm.

Our technological difficulties center on the internet router in our basement. After two years of faithful service, it began giving us only sporadic connection. Several hours of attempted repairs to our wireless network not only proved fruitless, but ended in permanent loss of all internet connections. My brother diagnosed the problem as a dead router and ordered us a new one from Amazon.

Days of waiting followed. I discovered our next-door neighbors had an unsecured network and that any healthy computer within fifteen feet of the north wall of our house could access the internet. For the sake of practicality, my parents moved their laptop into my work area. Overnight, my quiet corner became the traffic center of the house.

My attempts to write are now punctuated by frequent conversations about news articles and requests for input as my dad finishes his spring nursery orders. My creativity, stubborn thing that it is, refuses to operate under these conditions. While I have little doubt my parents are reading emails rather than spying on my page, still I deem my thoughts either too personal or too incriminating to risk exposing them to the view of others.

But I keep reminding myself that help is on the way. The new router arrived this morning. After plugging it in and setting up, a process which took about an hour, we still have no internet. The new diagnosis? Dead modem. I hope Best Buy ships fast…

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