My name is BonggaMom and I'm an addict

Guess where I am right now? Like Harry Potter, I'm in our cupboard under the stairs, huddled over a laptop (which is balanced on a shoerack), surrounded by coats and shoes, while my children wreak havoc outside, occasionally knocking on the closet door and asking for food (juuuust five more minutes, honey, I promise!). Why, do you ask? Because it's the only way I can get connected to the internet.

We've been without an internet connection for two days now. Actually, let me rephrase that - there's some problem with our router and the whole home network is not working right now. After two days of rebooting, replugging, and retyping phrases like "ipconfig release" and "ipconfig renew", I've found out that the only way to get online is to connect Alfie's laptop directly to our DSL modem, which happens to be in the cupboard. Hence my playing Harry Potter; I can't take the isolation anymore.

It's amazing how dependent I am on the internet. I'll admit I'm somewhat of an addict -- I simply must check email every twenty minutes, read my favorite newssites and blogs before I go to bed. I do a fair amount of online "window shopping" (finding what I want online then running into a store to buy the actual item) and online purchasing. But that's just gravy. When forced to go cold turkey, it becomes apparent to me how much I rely on the internet to help me run my family's day-to-day affairs.

My son drew an awesome motorcycle yesterday and I'm itching to post the photo on my blog. My daughter had a ballet recital and I'm dying to email the video to my parents. I had to visit an actual ATM to transfer funds from one bank account to another. I had no idea what I was supposed to do today or which playdates and meetings I missed yesterday, because all my appointments are on Yahoo! Calendar. I couldn't email anyone to ask because I didn't have access to email. I suppose I could have called someone. Except I couldn't, because all my friends' phone numbers are on my Yahoo! Address Book. I couldn't even get the Tech Support number for DSLExtreme by dialing the phone operator for 1-800 listings; I had to call my husband at the office and ask him to get it for me from their website.

Sure, lots of people are perfectly happy with firing up their computers and checking their email two or three times a week. They'd probably read this post and wonder what the fuss is about. Thank God there are wired folks in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who love their Twitters and Crackberries and appreciate that keeping your laptop powered up 24/7 is not merely a waste of electricity but a necessity. Oh, and God Bless Al Gore for inventing the internet. My name is BonggaMom and I'm an internet addict. And sorry, I refuse to come out of the closet just yet.