Apples on the Road

From 3333 miles away!

I am consistently fascinated by the Apple computer... As Alix and I are working, I rerun my internal mental tape how we got to the place of working together. When we initially made contact, the first thrill was that of SEEING each other through the I-cam....not only visualising using a photo..or the combination of a photo and voice, but to be able to see another person's expressions, eyes, laugh...certainly brings them to life so much more completely.

As we chatted....and chatted....and chatted more and more, we began videoing some of our exchanges. It was (and still is) great fun to replay them. We were intending to use bits of the video as part of this project, and still may, although the time spent in reviewing the by now hours worth of footage to pick out what we feel are the gems, is a bit daunting.

We now have a video archive of ourselves and four of our very dear friends as we got to meet, bond through laughter and stories, and connect on very deeply personal levels.

We know that this intimate passage into friendship happens in 'real life' when like minded people are fortunate enough to meet. To experience this happening through the magic of a computer and over a vast physical distance is still mind boggling to us all.

We found ourselves spending more and more time connecting through the computer. Both Alix and I are people who spend a good deal of time online anyway, and it became our 'normal' to video chat as we did other work. Once I upgraded to the Leopard operating system, more and more was possible to do and share together.

I am out and about a good deal, and often in coffee shops with wireless access. I would invite Alix into whatever space I was in, delighting in showing off bits of my day to day American life. Her world is so lovely yet so different than mine. We love the connecting and marveling over the similarities and comparing what was not the same, as well.

Of course, a highlight to us both was when I would have my class at the Apple Store and was able to invite her to watch and comment. It is a 160 mile trek for her to get to an Apple Store.
I am spoiled.. I have two within 20 minutes of my house. Since she is physically in Scotland, and I am in the USA, in NJ, we connect with a 5 hour time difference, which I often forget about since there is such immediacy in our connection.

One of my favourite memory-moments was when I was taking a class, and invited her to video chat, forgetting about that time difference. She was in her bed! I was introducing her to the fascinated Apple staff and she blithely commented that she had never had so many men in her bedroom at once! Her humour spiraled through the store, and another, very immediate friendship-connection between Alix and the wonderful Apple Creative staff was born!

Alix just reminded me of another silly story. It is often late in the evening in Scotland when we connect. Alix and several friends were sitting in her living room cuddling in around her lovely fireplace, chatting with three of us in my living room in New Jersey. As the light waned in Scotland, The NJ crew commented on them needing a bit more light to let us see them clearly. They scurried around, moving furniture and lamps. Without really realising what I was saying , I offered to hand her friend Julia one extra lamp I had here! Time, space, distance... electrical current...all of it had not even occurred to me as I reacted literally as though they were all in the same room as I was., and was about to hand it to her....that's how real the connection had become. It has heightened since then.

We are truly inhabiting an alternate yet very real reality of our own, and Apple's creation.