We finally have a effing tablet!!!!!

Sort of.

It's been a godawful ordeal getting the darned thing. First of all, we have very few sources of income: there's chores we do for our Grandma when we visit, presents of cash from our relatives on Christmas and our birthday, and the rare occasion when somebody buys something we're selling on Amazon.

It's been, like, what? Five years since we started saving up for the blasted thing? Various setbacks- mainly buying Christmas presents and clothes for ourselves- had kept us from buying anything. When at last we bought a Wacom tablet last year- which has an extra large screen that displays what's on our computer screen, so we can see what the heck we're drawing instead of looking up and down and hoping we did it right- we discovered one main thing: we couldn't get the stupid screen to display anything. We were still going blind, and had a huge chunky gizmo with a bunch of cords that only half worked.
We never did figure out what was wrong with it. So we sold it on eBay. Luckily, it sold fairly quickly, and we even made a profit.

So then we changed our goal a bit- we learned that we could use an iPad 2 in conjunction with a Adonit Jot Pro stylus and the Air Display app (which shares the screen with your iMac), and use THAT as an art tablet. So with the money we got for Christmas and selling the old tablet, we bought an iPad 2.

Guess what? It was stolen. The effing thing still had somebody's email and apps on it!!
So there's only one honest thing to do. We contact the owner with the email, and tell them that we have their iPad. These people lived hundreds of miles away, in the Midwest, and we live in California.
So we cooperate with the police in their hometown, and they discover that the seller has a bunch of stolen electronics. The problem is, neither Amazon nor Visa is willing to admit that there's a problem and refund us, 'cause the seller promised to take it back. But we can't trust the seller to give it back to the original owner- they're criminals, after all. We need to eliminate the middle man and send it directly back to the owners.
In the meantime, of course, we don't dare use the iPad for anything at all. FINALLY, the seller is actually ARRESTED, and Amazon finally concedes to give us a refund. We put a stop to an effing crime ring. We send the iPad back to the owners through the mail, and everything seems hunky-dory.

So with our refunded money (and a little extra), we buy the Jot Pro stylus and a refurbished iPad 2 from a reliable seller. Everything seems fine for about 24 hours...
AND THEN THE IPAD STOPS CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET. We can't buy the Air Display app we need to draw with it!!

So for about one agonizing week, UP UNTIL TODAY, we were helpless. Nobody seemed to have the answer for why it wasn't working. Mere hours ago, the crazy thing randomly decided it could connect to the internet again! So before it stops, we buy the app we so desperately need. Thankfully, the internet is still working as I write this...

So we FINALLY have the means to use the iPad as an art tablet. After YEARS of struggles and fateful setbacks. Now we can draw the way we want to... as soon as we can get a feel for the stylus and adjust the settings on Photoshop.

All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD, and that I'm emotionally exhausted.