Five Things I Want To Buy

There was a time, long ago before I started dating Lizett, that I lived like a king. I had a job that paid too much for too little work and virtually no expenses. I bought 5 iPods. I ate out every night. Sometimes I'd withdrawal thousands of dollars in ones and roll around like a dog.

It's over. I have left a privately funded school and gone public. I have abandoned Mothball subsidized rent for a Big Boy apartment. I have to buy gas. Lizett consumes $950 each week in meat products alone. In short, I can no longer simply spend as if the money will never run out. Here are the ways in which I would buy happiness if I could:

Apple iPhone

Don't tell me this isn't going to live up to the hype. I myself am a bit skeptical of the touch screen keyboard, but in my opinion there is virtually no chance of this thing getting anything less than stellar reviews and widespread adoption. Smart phones are already well established as being indispensably awesome, and apple never fails to blow minds. I would hunt and consume an adorable kitten for the google maps integration alone.

Digital Piano

I played the piano for years growing up, and although I was never nearly so good as I was on the Euph, I wasn't terrible. I tried to fiddle around a little while I was in NC for Babyfest, and it was pretty embarrassing. I can still sight read well enough, and my fingers know where to go, I just can't do it with reasonable speed or coordination. I'd like to get back into it because, unlike the Euph or any of the other brass I've picked up over the years, you can sit down and start playing piano wherever pianos are found.

LCD HDTV

We actually already have an HDTV. Lizett bought an Insignia CRT which has pretty much the best picture quality one can get. In fact, being a 4:3 CRT, for the vast majority of available programming it's probably much more watchable than what I would upgrade to. Still, it's not huge and it's not flat. Why do I care if it's flat? Because. And at 27", that's bumped down to like...24" (?) in 16:9--after living with Mothballvision, there really is no substitute for the 4x life-size pockmarked face of Edward James Olmos.

Wrinkle Free Shirts

As I type I am wearing a blue and white striped wrinkle free button-up that was originally intended to be a birthday present for my father. The sleeves are way too short so I've got to roll them up, but this is pretty much the only button-up I wear anymore because I am too lazy to iron and this is the extent of my wrinkle free selections. After working in the dome for 3+ years, the rest of my wardrobe consists almost entirely of solid button-ups and polos, but since moving to Austin I've grown lazy and have busted out the iron exactly zero times. I don't love looking like slob, however, so some new hassle free gear would be huge. Also I'd love it if my sleeves reached my hands. 15 1/2 35-36.

MacBook

Two Apple products on one five-item list? Suck it, I'm a MacHead. Further, I am a computer guy without a computer. It's embarrassing. I sold my own machine years ago to help finance ring #1, and have been fortunate enough to blunder into work-issued PowerBook G4s since that time. My current state-issued machine, however, is old, clunky, slow, lasts about 20 minutes on battery power and, I swear, appears to have been chewed on by someone's dog. The new MacBooks are cheap, sleek, light, Core 2 Duo, and can run OSX and Windows in parallel--genuinely, I cannot fathom why anyone would buy another machine.

Bonus item: Krispy Kremes. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.