I Just Wanna Go Home

Hello peeps. I know, it's been a while. It's nice to type at y'all again too. Anyway, on to the first and only order of business for this post. Recently I had the fortune to be hired as a lab assistant at my university's education department and by far the best perk of the job--other than having the job in the first place--is the iPad. Yes. I just said iPad. Each lab assistant is issued an iPad or iPad2 and I'm no exception.

After taking the APTT last Saturday (another order of business for an entirely different blog post), I was given my iPad and told to play with it all summer so I could become "acquainted" with it. I didn't fight that idea, as you can imagine. So, with iPad in hand I hurriedly drove my little self home so I could commence the acquainting.

The first day was glorious. I even missed an important and very much scheduled Skype date with my writing buddies (shout-out to Tiger and Kills!) because I was so infatuated with the giant iPhone device.

Sadly, my joy was short-lived. The morning following that first day of jubilant screen-touching and iBook downloading started off rather different than I'd intended.

The Home button didn't work. I couldn't go Home. (I am now going to channel Dorothy for as long as I can stomach it.)

Initially I was slow to comprehend what was happening, so I pressed the Home button again with an air of innocence that soon disappeared when the screen remained as it was. I frowned and scratched my head. I pushed it again. Same non-reaction.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the screen I was stuck on, but I can only watch so many YouTube videos before I get a little cross-eyed.

I'd only had the iPad one day and it was already broken. Great. This is the girl that has had the iPhone numero uno for over four years and never had to have it replaced. It's still in near-mint condition. My luck was bound to change at some point though, right?

So, fairly soon after I discovered the lack of Home button response, I spiraled through the five stages of grief.

Denial: "This isn't happening. I'm dreaming again. Pretty soon I'll start fighting monkeys and singing opera in a cow costume."

Anger: "Of course this would happen to me! Of all the people to give a messed up iPad, it had to be the person least likely to angry about it or smash it to smithereens!"

Bargaining: "Come on little Home button! You can work! I know you can! Who's the good little Home button! I'm just gonna press you now and I know you're gonna work, huh? That's right!"

Depression: "It won't work. I give up on life. Technology hates me. I should just quit school and join the circus. I'd be a great attraction: the girl who sucks at life. Yeah."

Acceptance: "There has to be a reason for this, other than I broke it. Oh wait...look here on the internet! Other people have the same problem! I'm not alone! I didn't break it! It's only temperamental!"

So there you have it folks. Drama at it's best. But for real, the Home button issue is a problem that a lot of iPad users are encountering, at least according to the blogosphere and even Apple has addressed the issue in their own technical way. Supposedly it's only a software issue, but I'm not really up on the legalese of the matter so I can only hope it's fixed sooner rather than later. I'd like to be able to go from screen to screen without rebooting my iPad every time I need to go to a different thing.

Unfortunately those blueprints for the time machine didn't pan out...