Five years ago tonight, as the clock passed midnight from December 31, 2002 to January 1, 2003, I proposed, and my then-girlfriend, now wife, said yes. While that story's unlikely to win any headlines, I have to acknowledge the Mac's role our courtship - a story which just might make you "Think Different".In the fall of 2002, an acquaintance of mine from church asked if I could help her move from Foster City to Sunnyvale. Being the geek I was, I took out my Handspring Visor, and added an appointment in the calendar for Saturday to move boxes and carry furniture.
While we got along fine, we hadn't yet found a spark. And that could have been the end of it. But it wasn't.
Kristine knew I was a Mac geek, and a few weeks later, she called to see if I would help her go to the Apple Store and pick up a new Mac before the school year started. Of course, I said I would. I had made the trip to the Palo Alto Apple Store a few times before, with other girls, so this wasn't anything big. Or so I thought.
We picked up a new 12-inch iBook, and I did my part to talk the Apple sales rep out of forcing us into AppleCare, saving $299. I promised I would help where needed.
The next week, we set a follow-on "date" where I would set up her Mac, show her the ropes, and make sure she had all the necessary applications to kick the school year off right. As many of her fellow teachers were forced to use Dells, she needed some kind of support, and she had someone.
That date just so happened to also include dinner and a movie. And future dates didn't have much to do with the Mac after a while. Eventually, I was bringing my Mac over to her condo after work, and I was pushing to get an Airport high-speed wireless network. She did, and I was hooked.
Now, five years later, we've been married for four-plus years. She's since replaced her iBook twice. Once, because it was dropped at school, and more recently, because of an upgrade to an Intel-based MacBook. My PowerBook was upgraded once, and this year, I got a MacBook Pro myself. Our home is littered with iPods of various sizes, not to mention an Apple TV.
Clearly, Macs were part of us getting together, and have been part of our life together. While the ingredients to a successful relationship aren't always easy to nail down, there's no question ours could have been much different without Apple. Thank goodness, we don't have to find out what that would have been like.