Friendship and Coupon Codes at the Laptop Launch

"You're so poor," my friend John, "that you can't even afford a haircut." I covered the top of my head and its thick mop of hair with my hand, self-consciously, and thought of a repartee. At the velvet portico of an Indian restaurant where there was a laptop exhibit, more journalists were signing their names on the guest list. "Well, I'm not the one with two names on the media bowl," I said. "Or is it three? I don't rig raffles. And I don't collect as much coupon codes as you do."

Of course no one in his right mind wanted to not be there. Organizers were raffling off an Apple MacBook Air and several models from a new consumer line of Dell Inspiron and XPS notebooks. My friend John was there to represent a local computer magazine, while I was covering for the technology beat of our newspaper. We have known each other for almost a decade now, and the banter was still the same.

"If one of us wins tonight, let's sell the laptop and split the money," proposed John. I shrugged out of either hopelessness or selfishness, maybe both. Then we began talking about other major fantasies and ventures: us partnering as marketing consultants, making a website that collected laptop coupon codes and online deals for cheap gadgets, writing fulltime for a travel magazine, and the New Orleans Hornets winning the NBA championship. (My friend is a certified Chris Paul nut-hugger.) More guests arrived. Time passed. We drank more free beer in sober chugs. Then a female voice called an executive from the organizing company, and the executive stepped onto the glittery, cloth-embroidered stage. That was our cue to attack the buffet. "Let's take advantage of dinner," I murmured. Oh, how shy-making!

Needless to say the kebabs were lovely, as were the peppered pita bread and rice with red curry sauce. Even the Coke tasted expensive. To increase the suspense of the draw, there was entertainment. Cameras flashed as Capoeira dancers came tumbling onto the stage like gangbusters in a musical; after that, the royal red lights spotted the staircase, where a lady and a gentleman in Salsa costumes gyrated in accordance to the long-legged beat of Latin. Everyone clapped. Thin smoke hovered above our heads like the ghost of past events, while coupon codes flashed on plasma screens above the laptop displays. A party was happening.

When I stepped outside the stars had come out and the warmth of the summer evening had gone, replaced by a mild breeze that was brittle and a bit dusty. This half of the world appeared to be still and in peace. The car park out in front was half-empty. It wasn't completely quiet. I still heard the sound that came from inside, the bubblegum background, and the sound of news, of a moment that was going to be talked about the next day in many offices. "Going home tonight," a loud voice announced, "with a brand new Dell XPS M1330 is - from The New York Times, Richard Someone!" The crowd roared and I was more than relieved not to have been chosen. I was sorry that neither John nor I didn't win, but anyway we had something more: friendship, and a money-saving passion for coupon codes.