Sonshine: a child of my generation-thankful

I remember the very first time I bought something on the internet. It was my freshman year of college and the local Gap didn't have the jeans I wanted in my size. The salesperson recommended I check "online". It was basically like ordering out of a catalog. They had pictures of everything and then you called a phone number to actually place your order.Three days later the jeans appeared magically on my doorstep. I was hooked. If I can buy it online, I do. It's like a magic lamp. I want or need something. I inform the appropriate person and they bring it to my house. How could that not be awesome? There is no searching through huge stacks of jeans or tightly packed racks to find my size. I can search by size, color, style, type, you name it. I can narrow down my choices to only those things that are actually applicable. I do not have to pack up my children and drag them around some store. I can shop at favorite stores who do not choose to exist in Wichita. I can compare prices from different stores and look up coupon codes on the fly.They will ship to me or anyone else I can think of, gift-wrap if I so request. Yesterday I completed about a third of my holiday shopping in about 10 minutes. The gifts are already on their way to the appropriate recipients. Done. Sigh of happiness. I think I am going to try out the amazon grocery thing this week, because if that's as awesome as I hear it is I will be a happy camper. Anything for more days when I don't have to go anywhere.
My mom reads this blog every week. She sees all the pictures of my kids, reads the funny stories and the young mom laments. I send her video in emails. We talk to them live through the webcam. I pay all my bills online. I register all products and read customer reviews. I download audiobooks to my ipod every few days. I scrapbook online and someone else keeps track of all the stuff. I google any question my kid asks that I can't answer. I look for recipes and addresses. I write, I read, I comment, I discuss. I buy greeting cards as digital files, customize them and print as many as I want to, whenever I need them. I sell my little sewing projects to people all over the world who I never meet. I applied for my business tax number online and was able to print the document instantly. I register the cars and pay the property taxes. I can do without a telephone for days but not my computer or my internet service.