It’s raining like bananas here. I can’t believe I have to check to see if the subways are running if it’s raining, but alas, I do. And they are. I took a taxi anyway. Screw you, MTA.

But more importantly, my new computer is at home, and I miss it. I want to go play, even though it’s pretty much an identical copy of the setup on my old laptop, thanks to the amazing data transfer services of OS X. It’s shiny! And new! And fast! Ergo I want to play on it for hours. And try to figure out the real purpose of the dashboard widgets.

Finally I can consider the software on Maczot, because I’ve upgraded to a better OS, and I might have to subscribe to MacHome again, because the hardware and software they profile finally applies to me. Yay!

Alas, I have to wait to play with my new toy. Yay new toy!

Updated: Oh noes! MacHome went out of business last year! Bummer. 

Well, it’s New Computer Day for me. After much agonizing and hand-wringing, I have bought myself a new MacBook Pro, and while I’ve definitely had a good long drink of the Kool-Aid of Apple flavor, let me say, the store did piss me off mightily because no matter how many times I called before driving over there, I got a different answer. DId they have the 15”? No. But then, as I was about to check out, there comes one now. NO, TWO. So they WERE in stock. Jesus.

Then I was told by two different people that iLife ‘08, which I wanted like ChickLit heroines want new shoes, was in the box already. No, not in there. I was so pissed (and so tired since I’d barely had the energy to go get the thing in the first place, I burst into tears at the thought of having to drive all the way back to the store to exchange and return everything. DAMN I was mad.

But fortunately I found a good manager over the phone who said, “I’m sorry, you’re right, our bad, we fix.” But I was still pissed off about that.

However, I connected my old Mac to my new Mac, took a nap, and when I woke up, all my data was transferred. Whee! So I could pick up exactly where I left off. Now that is handy-dandy. 

NYC is a downright mess. Few subway lines are running, and the ones that are don’t all have a/c in every car. So cars that do have a/c are packed to the gills and are hot anyway.

Add to that it’s 95F today, and humid, and you have 9 million people in the metro area who are angry, sticky, smelly and just want to go home.

Plus, it’s a freaking rainstorm. The transportation of a major metropolis comes to a halt because of rain? We can do better than that for heaven’s sake.

However, a very very kind cabbie took me to the bus station despite it being past his off-duty time, and his kindness more than made up for the horrors of this morning. Now to go home, drink and rest. Be careful out there.
Sent via BlackBerry. Pardon the typos!

You know something is wrong when at 8am, there are hundreds of people standing around on the city streets, talking on cell phones. Something is especially wrong when people are streaming out of the subway stations but no one is going in. No one is running or screaming and there’s no smell of badness so it’s not seriously, oh-shit wrong, but no one’s hurrying? Everyone is...standing around? At 8am? In Manhattan?

That ain’t right.

Seems there was a huge rainstorm (which I knew) and there was flooding all over New York and New Jersey (which I knew) and as a result of the storm and the water, the subways were not running.

The subways. Not running. At rush hour. This is bad.

So there’s hundreds of people on the street, it’s already 85 and humid, and there’s no subways. There’s also no cabs because they’re all taken. And the bus? Fuggedabahdit. Packed to the gills, and people were still prying the doors open to squeeze in after the driver shut them to try to drive away. If you saw the pileup of fans going after Barry Bonds’ homerun ball last night? It was kind of like that, only people were fighting over air conditioning.

Me? I ended up walking. Yes, I’m 36+ weeks pregnant, and yes, it’s hot and humid. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to go from 41st street and 8th Ave to my office on the east side in the 60s. I tried to get on buses and couldn’t fit, and I even tried to get on an express bus hoping the driver would take pity on me, but no. I wasn’t allowed on. Seriously. It was awful.

But I’m here, I’m in the a/c, and I’m drinking water and Coke and eating whatever I can get my hands on. That sucked.

And what’s really alarming is that is was a STORM. And it’s happened on and off all summer: big rain, big floods, no trains, lots of mass annoyance and low level hysteria. I don’t get it. People worry about planes and shoes and bombs in backpacks and terrorism by explosives. If any terrorists are paying attention, clearly, all they need is water to force all of New York into a tizzy and completely knock out the transportation infrastructure. Water. That’s all.

I don’t like New York much today. 

I am just a joiner and a follower this week. First the MomAgenda, which I love like nothing else.

Now? Based on the Apple media event info, I’m very glad I decided to wait based on all the rumors about new products. I’m not buying an iMac, though they are gorgeous, but I do LOVE the new iLife suite of programs (including iPhoto and the new iMovie) and am glad I waited to buy. All new Macs will come with the new iLife.

Love it.

I am very close to purchasing a new Mac, because my current laptop is 4.5 years old. In human years, that’s about 412 years of age. Geriatric to say the least. And while it runs hot and drags at certain times and can be a cranky slow bastard, I do love it, and am sad to move on. But it’s past time to do so.

The problem is, Macs, they are expensive. Horrifically expensive. You can get a reasonable PC laptop for under a grand, and Macs, they are not at all reasonable in the price department. Even though Consumer Reports ranked the 15” and the 17” MacBook Pro as among the best laptops out there, they were nowhere NEAR a best buy because they are so prohibitively costly to buy.

Because I’m contemplating such a huge expenditure and am STILL struggling with it, I tend to over-research and second-guess myself. PLUS I’m behaving like a total geek. I’m reading rumors! About Macs! And what’s new that might come out this year!

And today at 1pm Eastern there’s a big media event at Apple headquarters and I’m loading a live blog about it because I am seriously, seriously weird into this process.

I need to just buy the damn thing and move on with my life. But after the “media event.”

It’s in the high-90s here, but with cab exhaust and lots of people, it’s going to feel like well over 100, and I’m going to feel like crap.

Oddly, I already feel like crap. I’m tired and groggy and I want to go lie down and sleep for an hour. Seriously, I don’t know what’s up with me, but I feel like I haven’t slept at all, even though I slept rather well last night.

Maybe I’ll take a nap at lunchtime. The nice thing about being as big and round and obviously pregnant as I am: no one says a word if I do things I don’t normally do, like nap or eat six times a day.

Thank God for air conditioning, too. Not everyone has it here, and I can’t imagine trying to sleep in this heat without it. I’ve never understood why having heat is a requirement of law, and no one can turn off your heat in the winter, but A/C is considered a luxury item. At this point, though, most buildings in New York City look like they’ve broken out with square cystic acne, what with every apartment having a window unit installed. You walk underneath them and they drip condensation on you (ew) and they blow hot air into the street - making it hotter outside and cooler inside.

Man, it’s a long walk to the train. Good thing I can sit here for the next few hours.