I’ve yearned for a laptop computer for the past year but realized it wasn’t a smart purchase as I wasn’t traveling or even working locally away from my office. I've scheduled a May vacation to Canada for moi and a June business trip to Maryland. I realize I now have a viable need and sorely missed having a laptop on our recent road-trip.

I’ve been browsing on and off in Best Buy and Staples along with reading online reviews and simply surfing to see what’s new. I’m fairly techy but I don’t need a supercomputer though from my research I can see that one day I will be ready to be a Mac user—for now they were out of my budget and not a smart fit for my current needs of Outlook and Groove.

I asked my peers, my daughter’s friends, the geek squad employees, and my computer gal; what’s the best PC to buy? The answers were all over the board. I decided to identify what I would use it for, what my price range was, and what features were a must have. Once I had my list I compared apples to apples (ha!) and oranges to oranges. The different brands offered similar everything and eventually they all blurred together. Nothing was speaking to me.

In my previous life I was a shopaholoic—I shopped to find happiness and purpose in my life. In my present life I’ve swung so far in the opposite direction I’ve banned shopping at Walmart! This is a conscious purchase not an impulse buy. I thought a little about what 'PC' meant and accepted that my computer would simply be foreign made; there was no way around that within my budget. But ‘personal computer’ resonated with me; it definitely is a personal choice.

I thought about the electronics we’ve purchased and owned over the last decade. We bought our first 8mm video camera in the late nineties when our family dog was diagnosed with terminal kidney failure. We treasure those films today. I purchased my first laptop in 2002 as an events coordinator for a local bookstore and thought I was a techy queen! When they were hot and new Jeff found a five pixel digital camera that he fell for and had to have. Just before I graduated from AssistU in 2005 Jeff surprised me with a top of the line desktop and monitor for my biz. Since then we’ve added another digital camera, a DVD player, and a 42’’ television to our menagerie and here’s the commonality: they are all Sony products. (Thanks for this insight Antonette!)

When you invest in a product and are satisfied or blown away—you stick with it. Brand loyalty. I wasn’t consciously aware of it but I trust Sony and have been pleased with their products. I didn’t need to look to others or experts to find my answer—I only had to look inside and listen to my wise self. She knew all along. My new laptop is a Vaio EB series, which received excellent reviews except for battery life. I upgraded to an i5 processor, 500gb HD, 4gb RAM which should whiz right along on the net and run the minimal software I plan to add. My new baby will arrive at the end of the month and I’ll share my experience and feedback then.

And to reflect my personal choice and personality: of course it’s purple!

Sony_Vaio