Economic Stimulus

Today I spent almost half of the $600 that was deposited in my bank account a couple months ago, courtesy of George W. Bush and the U.S. Treasury. Just doing my civic duty to stimulate the economy. Most people I know are making a more conservative choice - paying bills, taking care of an unexpected expense, or just saving for a rainy day. Normally, that's where my tax refunds go too, after all, it's not really "extra," it was mine to begin with. Uncle Sam was just "borrowing" it... interest free. But this time it was different, and I don't really have an explanation for why.

So I bought an iPod. I know, I know, I'm definitely not the last person to go digital with music, but I'm pretty far from the first one. I've been talking about it for months and thinking about it at least twice as long. I didn't wake up this morning thinking "today I'm going to buy an iPod" but just finally decided there was no time like the present. It helped that I was shopping with a friend who offered to help me set up my laptop and get started, which no doubt saved me countless hours of reading help menus to figure everything out.

So here I sit with plenty of time on my hands while I rip one CD after another into iTunes. I'm kind of excited. I rarely indulge in something like this, a "toy" for grownups, so it's sort of fun to set up playlists and think about some new music I might like to download. Or maybe some TV shows, or movies, or fun podcasts. I can't wait to listen to any or all of my music this fall when I'm commuting 300 miles a week, without sifting through three visor racks crammed with CD's.

Oh, but wait. My standard-issue car radio isn't quite up to that... and it happens to be broken. So, any guesses how I'm going to spend the rest of the money?

(Three guesses, first two don't count.)