What did people do before the internet?!?!

I know some of the smug answers:

They spent time with their families.

They connected with “real” people.

But seriously, I see the internet as a tool, a common grace. Here’s why I think so, just from my life today:

• My dear friend Kate calls me at lunchtime to say her flight through Minneapolis is going to now have a longer layover, so can I meet her for dinner at the airport?

  Pre-internet, I would have been calling Northwest Airlines 4-5 times this afternoon and would have spent half my day on hold, just trying to follow her flight’s status. With the internet, it’s done in a matter of minutes, thus leaving me more time with my family!

  Also it took me 2 minutes to map out our route to Potbelly’s 3.9 miles away.

• I have a wedding shower to go to on Saturday. But the next two days are going to be really busy for me, so I’m not going to have a lot of shopping time.

  What does the internet allow me to do? I go to target.com, browse the registry, pick the gift I want to give, and I can either order it right then or find out if it’s available at my closest store.

  Since I didn’t give myself enough time to ship it, I’ll just run over and get it on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Without the internet, it would take me until Saturday morning just to choose a present!

It’s such a time-saver. I know the reverse could be said, that it’s a time-waster, and that’s often true. But when I think about how much time and effort the internet saves me, it makes me want to blog about it!!!

Also, how many of you have already used the internet to find out what the word encomium means? That’s what I did!

I went to the mall for a few minutes this morning to begin the quest to find a bridesmaid dress. (I’m in a wedding in June for a dear, dear friend.) My assignment is to locate a brown bridesmaid dress. All of us are allowed to pick our own in whatever style we like, so the search is on!

I have to admit, I didn’t look as hard as I could, mostly because I found myself sucked into spring clothes and colors (oh, and the 75% off boots at Macy’s). What is it about spring clothes? Every year I find myself wanting a whole new wardrobe when March comes on.

I’m happy to report that I made it out of the mall without buying anything (mostly because I’m cheap). But I found myself thinking, “I wish I could win a huge shopping spree.”

Why do I feel like that in the spring? Is it just the change in weather that makes me want to go drop tons of money on stuff I don’t need? And as I’ve thought about it this afternoon, I realized that I haven’t worn my spring clothes in 2 years because I’ve been pregnant, so maybe they’ll feel fresh and fun—here’s hoping. More likely, they’ll just feel dreadfully out of style and ridiculously ill-fitting on my new (not improved) body shape. Ah well.

Then Abraham and I got to talking, and here’s the question: If someone gave you a $10,000 shopping spree to one store (no expiration), what store would it be?

The only rule is that you can’t say the grocery store. My painfully practical side would definitely give that answer, but I’m making myself not answer that. So you can’t either—HA!

And if you have trouble giving just one answer, tell me what you’d debate between. I love the struggle of such a difficult, and unfortunately imaginary, choice.

Update (for those of you who must have more rules):

1. Men are permitted to participate (Abraham’s first choice was the Apple Store)
2. Online stores are an option.

I heard about Etsy back in November when I met this awesome purse maker gal at my church’s craft fair. She explained it as kind of like Ebay for crafters, except you don’t do auctioning. It’s just a place where crafters can set up a store and sell their wares online.

Am I getting this so far?

I have yet to really explore this Etsy thing, not really for selling my stuff (Lord knows I don’t knit fast enough to make that worthwhile at all), I just want to explore for browsing/purchasing. I love the idea of unique, handmade gifts.

But every time I think to go there, I get really overwhelmed by the sheer volume of possibilities. For example, today I searched “necklace” (yeah, I know it’s too broad a term for a crafting site, but I honestly didn’t have anything in particular in mind). Anyway, do you know how many pages there were????

Over.eleven.thousand.

How in the world can I move on from there?

So if any of you use Etsy and can give me some tips for how to enjoy this site and celebrate the wonderful creativity that I behold, I’d be in your debt. Or maybe Abraham will be in your debt.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be exploring this site at all, for the sake of our bank account.