Take it back and raise hell. If you laid out $1000, and THEN had to buy an external cd drive, you got screwed! You should be able to get one hell of a notebook for 1/2 that much!
Can get a nice laptop with an internal cd/dvd drive for around $599.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=17&sel=Price%3BPrice6
Scott, ya got screwed.