Anticipation.

What's better, the waiting or the getting?

When I'm waiting for something I'm a bundle of nerves - my obsessive compulsive nature takes over and I can hardly focus on anything else.

Examples?

Here's one for ya - I switched to Telus a while ago, and one of the perks of said switch was that they give me a shiny new LCD Monitor. This would be a great boon because real estate on my desk is at a premium. ( I could say "corner workstation", but lets just leave it at desk, shall we?) It's a Dell monitor, but I don't care what it is as long as it's skinny and shiny and bright. After waiting the required amount of time I went through the sign up process and was linked to Dell's site to be able to track the progress of my order.

(On a side note, I think that people had it better in the old days. When you sent away for something- be it from Sears, L.L. Bean, or even from an ad on the back page of your favorite comic book, you were told it would be "four to six weeks for delivery". You shrugged your shoulders, put it in the hands of the post office, and went on with your life until your package arrived.)

Since day one I have tracked this parcel like I was a Safari Hunter and it was The Great White Ape. Each morning I logged onto Dell's site, punched in my order number, and saw what was going on with it. I watched it go through order processing, manufacturing, delivery preparation and shipment. They must have sensed my constant presence, because all of that didn't take too long. For the last couple of days now I've been tracking it's movement through Purolator, watching it cross the country on it's way to my home. I check their site so much that they probably think they are under a Denial of Service attack.

I just can't seem to let it go and just be content to wait.

I'm like that with mail as well. Be it e-mail or snail mail, I just can't help myself from checking it over and over again. I'm waiting for my Brother to e-mail me some pictures from when we were down in Parksville, and I've checked my inbox about 5 times already today.

But once I receive the pictures and the monitor? What happens? Will I sit back and enjoy them, glad that the wait is finally over?

Probably not.

I think I'm addicted to anticipation. The craving for that next fix. I'd be impatient for a donut if you told me I'd have to wait two days to have one. (But that's understandable, c'mon, it's a donut.)

Is there is a cure? I don't know. And if there was? I would probably be going mad waiting to get my hands on it.

Later.


(Update: What's really funny is that about 20 minutes after I typed this, Purolater showed up at my door with the monitor. I swear I almost hugged the guy.)