I am late to the conversation here, but think you have chosen wisely. I would have recommended the Air for what you want to accomplish. I have a MacBook Pro (from 2010) which I love, but I do illustrating and a couple other things besides that make me want the slightly larger display and the extra power. It is a pain to haul around all day, doesn't fit well into my satchel (I need a backpack on days I use it) and I sometimes eye my labmate's Air rather enviously...
When I read the subject heading of this thread and saw the first few posts of people wowwed by the new model + retina display, all I could think of was this:
