So Jacob’s been pretty set on studying computer science or computer engineering when he goes to college. I’m not sure the exact difference between these two, but I’m sure we’ll google it and get that checked off our list shortly. In any case, when he learned you can build your own PC and that we know a handful of people who have successfully tackled it… he was hooked. And so I’ve found myself discussing computer parts with the dudes that work at Best Buy. Who are kind of the same but slightly different from the dudes that work at Game Stop. Yo Best Buy– where are your diversity initiatives?
I’ve spent several weeks in charge of purchasing motherboards and RAM and graphics cards and powers supplies and I have to say, I may not be Best Buy’s target demo, but I am head and shoulders the most qualified person on this job. I used to quote multimillion dollar computers for a living. Seriously. Ever since my friend Tony, a master sales engineer took me under his wing and explained all the parts of a computer to me in English, I could totally hang with the dudes at Best Buy. Which for the record, I most certainly do not want to do.
I will literally never forget the time I went to Fry’s electronics, during the workday. It was definitely the cowboy Fry’s, not the pyramid Fry’s. I’m sure I was dressed in a suit jacket from Banana Republic and one of my pairs of kitten heels. I needed to buy DRAM (pronounced D-Ram) for a customer’s system and one of dozens of guys brings it out to me in an anti-static bag. Now I have more than one Fry’s story and none of them are good. They’re generally of the Home Depot genre where you get the thing home and realize it’s obviously been sold and returned because it’s faulty. And the store just slaps some tape on the box and shoves it straight back on the shelves. I looked at that Fry’s salesman’s name tag, committed his name to memory aloud, and made him swear on his life that not only was it the exact part I’d asked him for, but also that it wasn’t defective. Twenty-two-year old me looked him dead in the eye and was like, “I will hunt you down if this thing is wrong and I have to come back here.” I’m sure he wasn’t that scared because none of those guys lasted longer than a week or two at that place. But still… I saw him think twice.
So far despite all the curbside pick-ups and in store conversations, I haven’t had to threaten a single Best Buy worker.
The other day Jake and I are anticipating this exciting engineering project and he mentions one of his best buddies, Jackson. “And Mom, can you believe he doesn’t even know what he wants to be? I mean he’s had years to think about it.”
Yeah, Jackson’s also eleven.