Why do I have to do the research and pre-shopping for a digital camera for my mother? I have already spent a month on this, found someone selling a new, in-the-box, camera exactly like Lin’s (which she liked a lot) on Amazon for just the right price, but she refuses to order it now because she read on article in the newspaper saying that some people have been getting ripped off on camera sales at eBay. Yeah, well Amazon Marketplace isn’t eBay, and when someone has several years and thousands of very positive feedbacks, and you are buying through Amazon, your chances of getting screwed are about zero. But no … she won’t trust my word that if she wants that camera she should order it now. Well since she won’t, and I want one just like it, I am going to order it for myself (provided it’s still there when I have the spare money).

So now she wants me to research new models of Olympus cameras for her. She’s not going to find one for $150, that much I can tell you, and she doesn’t want to spend any more than that. The bottom line isn’t that she is afraid she’ll get screwed, because I told her if somehow she managed to get screwed by the seller, I would personally handle the issue with Amazon and the seller myself. No, it’s that she always has to have something better than what we have … unless we suggest it (like my recent suggestion that she replace her ancient computer with a Mac Mini). I’m not inspired to do her shopping for her. For heaven’s sake, walk into any store that sells digital cameras, look at them, read what they do, determine if it does what you want it to do, decide if the price is right and freaking buy it. She already knows she wants an Olympus, because they are good cameras, so half the research battle is done. Pick the one you like and press on.

But this is what I get for calling to ask her where my dad’s parents were living in 1930. One day I will learn to email her with these questions and wait the week or two it will take her to write back. Ugh.