Dear Santa:

The time for asking for dollies has long passed, but if you could find it in your heart to bring one of your “nice” believers a new laptop for Christmas, it would be greatly appreciated. You see, my four-year-old laptop has been a workhorse, but it might be time to put it out to pasture where old, hard-working laptops spend the rest of their lives. I see that you now use e-mail and author a blog – I do too and you’ll have to check mine out sometime! And you have really outdone yourself with your handy-dandy webcam that allows all of us to check out what games the reindeer are playing. Well Santa, I, too, use my computer many hours a day. I fact, sometimes I feel I am permanently tethered to it. Today, during a rigorous stretch of revisions my backspace key flipped off the keyboard. Oops! Okay, I caught it before it fell on the floor, after it somersaulted through the air and bounced off the screen and landed upside down by the “Escape” key. For a minute, I said “oh my, it’s alive” and I decided it was making some kind of a point quite frankly. I quickly grabbed up the backspace key, but the little bugger was slippery, and then I broke a nail trying to fix the retaining hinge to pop it back on. Grrrrrrrrrr. I persevered and it finally snapped on … whew!!! But soon thereafter, although I mashed it down pretty hard, it started getting a little topsy-turvy and rocking back and forth. I thought a sledgehammer would be in order next, but I managed to get it attached again albeit with a somewhat shaky status now. Even though I like to think I am a near-perfect typist, I do make the occasional mistake and backspacing is key to my job (if you’ll pardon the pun of course). Mousing around is way too slow and Control and left arrow just don’t cut it Santa dear. The lettering on the keyboard keys, especially “E”, “R”, “T” and “I”, “O”, “P” vanished over a year ago, and though I try to keep a stiff upper lip through it all, it is a royal pain when I stray off my “home keys”. Sigh. So, Santa Baby, though I could not attempt to rival Eartha Kitt’s sultry requests to you, I am hoping that since I’ve been nice all year (never naughty … not this girl), that you’ll grant this wish for me. Just to jog your memory Santa, remember when I was a little tyke, I only asked for two things every year which was a moderate request – just sayin’. Also of note, even though everyone said you were not for real, I begged to differ with them … I still do, actually. It is them who are non-believers, certainly not I. So, Santa Sweetie – if you think this Christmas wish is excessive, well I’ll just muddle through somehow hobbling along with my wobbly backspace key and I’ll understand. As a little enticement however … after midnight on Christmas Eve, I’ll leave the side door open, and you just come up into the kitchen. I’ll clear a little space on the kitchen table, next to the delicious cookies and ice-cold milk I’ll be leaving out, just in case you bring a new laptop with you. I’ll be fast asleep, not dreaming about sugarplums, but a solution to my typing dilemma. P.S. I have a high-efficiency furnace so perhaps you don’t want to squeeze down the chimney, as it’ll be a cold slide down. P.P.S. – If the laptop thing ain’t gonna happen, please just pack a new backspace key and send a couple of tech-savvy elves to work a little magic with a quick repair. There’s a five spot for each of them if they do the fix!! Thanks in advance Santa. – Linda