I did manage to pick up a brand new MacBook Air on Friday evening, and I love it so far! I had been reading that only the SSD models were hitting stores and the hard drive models are delayed until the end of the month, but I wanted the SSD version anyway so I knew it would only be a matter of time before I get my hot little hands on one from an Apple store. I stalked – um, I mean called, my local Apple store and got a hold of someone on Friday afternoon who said they had a few in stock. I left work a little early (thanks, boss!) to catch an earlier train home to get to the store a little sooner. I called the store again to make sure they still had at least one before I left the train station, and talked to a girl who put me on hold for a while and came back to say, and I quote, “Um, like, I don’t think we have any more in stock.” I gritted my teeth and said thank you and hung up. I decided to head to the store anyway figuring she probably had no idea what the hell she was talking about, cued by her uncertainty and the fact that she sounded like she was 12.

The mall was Friday-night busy yet I still managed to walk calmly to the Apple store without yelling incoherently at the obnoxious teenagers who inevitably got in my way repeatedly. When I got to the store, I hunted down the oldest staff person on the floor I could find – I think he was around 19 – and explained what I wanted. He wrote everything down and had someone go find the Air while he went for the SuperDrive. I was half-expecting the stock boy to come back and say there were no more Airs, but he had one in hand and handed it silently to my sales guy. I checked the specs on the box to make sure it was indeed the latest rev and nearly shouted with glee.

I did forget to buy one thing that night – the USB ethernet adapter, which I needed to do the migration from my MacBook to the Air, but I went back and picked one up on Saturday. I ended up not using it, which is another story in and of itself, but I think I’m done with the migration and have been carrying around my splendidly light Air during my commute – it’s nice to shave a couple of pounds off the weight of my backpack!