Technology has Stolen My Baby

     I love technology.  I really do.  Because of the internet I am afforded the luxury of working at home.  I can look up research I need for my job.  I use several different tools on the internet to help me accomplish my tasks.  This has saved me gas, wear and tear on tires, the cost of "proper" work clothes and lunch expenses.  However, the internet has also taken from me.
     Picture it.  The year is 1998.  My little girl, my only child, my Baby receives a pink walkman and a Back Street Boys CD for Christmas.  She is in love.  She is enchanted with music.  Because she is only a little girl with no viable income I become her idol, the giver of music, a SUPERSTAR, if you will.  I too am enchanted by the look of joy in her little brown eyes.  I will do anything to make her happy.  I drive through sleet and snow into another time zone just to be the first in line for the new Britney CD.  I can find the "not yet released" Jessica Simpson CD on the bottom shelf in the back room of Sam Goody two days before anyone else can buy it.  I leap over racks in Hastings in a single bound to grab the last Inspector Gadget soundtrack from the hands of a crying little girl  victory from the jaws of defeat.  But then one day........the pink walkman is replaced by a little pink ipod.  We have both become obsolete.  Oh, she still needs my credit card but she no longer needs my skills.  Now she can get her music from the internet.  Believe me when I say---there is no need to drive through the sleet or bound over racks to get an itunes card.  It's just not necessary.
     Now as the Christmas shopping season is upon us once more, I think of the hours I have spent at Barnes and Noble, cafe mocha in hand, searching for the perfect picture book, tween romance, A & P coloring book, nursing and teaching books and the latest Tess Gerritson novel---and then I think of Katy's new Kindle and my heart breaks a little bit.