I Suck At The Apple Store

last night, karen and i decided to go out for dinner. we ended up going to bertucci's in hingham (at the derby shoppes). (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) bertucci's pizza is so good. i do thoroughly enjoy the pizza there.

anyway, following dinner we decided to take a little stroll around the derby shoppes. with my friend's (meredith) upcoming wedding this fourth of july weekend, karen figured she'd browse around for some dresses. she actually had purchased a dress the day before with my friend (kelley). but, i guess in an effort to keep her options open, karen decided to look around some more at dresses... just in case. (i believe this is what is called... a woman's prerogative.)

while we were walking around the derby shoppes, we ran into my favorite sister-in-law (janine) and her friend (gretchen). janine and gretchen were on their way to the apple store because gretchen was ready to make a big purchase: a new computer. thus, karen and i tagged along.

now, i suck at the apple store. truth be told, i have never purchased a computer from the apple store. it's not that i dislike apple computers. quite the contrary, i think apple computers are great. in terms of quality and ease of use, apple computers are very good. perhaps that is why their computers are also costlier.

given the choice between microsoft and apple, i would go with apple. (justin long fans unite! just kidding.) before anyone starts accusing me of being pro-apple (or pro-justin long)... i'm actually not. i just happen to have a huge dislike for microsoft because microsoft's software is proprietary and generally full of bugs. (hence, you'll notice that a computer using a microsoft operating system... left on its own... will need to be routinely rebooted.)

interestingly enough, our computers at work are setup to use microsoft applications. (i have no say on our architecture at work.) so unfortunately, i'm stuck using "the evil empire" for the time being.

anyway, gretchen was quite nervous about purchasing her computer. apparently, she gets very nervous with large purchases. so, i can only imagine how she must have felt when she purchased her condo in hingham.

as it turns out, teachers get a discount the apple store. and luckily for gretchen, she is a teacher in the hingham school system. it also turns out that if she were to purchase a new computer, she would be receiving a free apple itouch and a $100 discount off a printer. not bad for a deal. plus, she would be purchasing the computer just in time before the big 25% sales tax hike next month in massachusetts. (truth be told, i think gretchen was more about the free apple itouch than the new computer itself.)

all in all, it was an interesting time at the apple store. we were actually in the apple store for quite some time because there was a long wait... with very little employees around to offer assistance. i find the way the apple store functions in terms of its inventory and employees... a little bit bizarre, but that's just me. for instance, the store did not know if it would ever get a particular piece of inventory in because... they just don't know what will arrive or when a piece of merchandise will come in... if it even does. that just seemed odd to me.

nevertheless, it was fun to hang out with janine and gretchen. incidentally, i think gretchen wants to meet men with all of our other single female friends now. she seemed quite interested in one of the apple employees... which was interesting because not too long ago, there was a report that the apple store was a good place to meet men.