Ipod Touch

Maybe this is writing related. Saturday - oh, doomed Valentine's Day - I went bowling and to play pool with a pretty good friend of mine. It was fun to just sit back and relax and just kick it for a bit. After that, I decided that I deserved to get myself a birthday/Valentine's gift. I wanted an Ipod Touch. I've been wanting one for a while. I don't care for my phone to be connected to everything like that, but I did just want an upgrad on my iPods (the last two I've had were hand-me-downs from a friend...) and I wanted to do something nice for myself on the day that someone else should be doing something nice for me (haha). So my friend and I pop into Best Buy. You should know these types of purchases cannot happen alone for me, nor can they be planned. I just have to be like "I'm going right now into the store to buy it". The end. If I'm saving up and saving up, then I'll talk myself out of it. I just have to go without for a while, then decide on a whim that I should have it. Best Buy was taking too long, and I was talking myself out of it. I waited in line for like 20 minutes for a manager to come and unlock them. The manager never came, and so I left. No Ipod.

After that, I met up with another friend to see this show at the Blue Note. It was all right. I probably won't ever consider buying the artist's stuff. Then........on the transfer platform at like 3:30am, I run into a friend from High School. He was just in the city and visiting...and we found each other in the middle of the night on a subway platform. So, we ride the train (going in the same direction, one stop after mine!) and talk, and decide that we need to meet up for brunch the next day. We do, and have a lovely time catching up. And then I say, on a whim, that I want to go to the apple store to buy an Ipod. He says he's down for riding with me....then we get there and he rememberes that apple gets a military discount, and so he buys it for me!

Anyways. So, I've been playing with my new gadget all week. It's a good diversion from work. It's a good diversion from life changes that also happen this week -- that will not be charted here. Today I downloaded a podcast "Coffee Break Spanish". I've decided that since I live really close to Washington Heights, that I should finally learn spanish. It's something that I'm putting on the list of things to do in 2009. Not that I expect to have it mastered, but I believe, knowing my capacity for languages when I really just immerse myself, that I can have a pretty good start by the end of the year. Plus, my kids -- so many of them are Spanish speakers. They can help me as I help them :).

Other things? I bought Phillip Levine's "The Simple Truth". I'm still believing in investing my money in what matters to me the most. I'm not "buying into" (no pun) this idea that the world is going to shambles on its own. I believe our fears and what we do with our fears (hoard our money or spend it lavishly) is also contributing. And I do believe - a small amount - in retail therapy. And well, life has been pretty crappy on some fronts lately.

Today it is 29 degrees in NYC. I am ready to peel off all of these layers. I'm ready to wear my summer dresses that make me so happy. Get me out of winter already!