#146 - eight months

i could almost have a baby in the time that it will take me to graduate from nursing school, which is a lot of time yet none at all. we are applying for graduation today, a couple ladies from the registration office are here to help us. after this term i only have four classes, a total of 18 credits. i have been thinking a lot about what i will do after graduation and get a job.

A DOG
hopefully i will be on a good schedule, maybe three 12-hour shifts. that gives me a lot of time for cuddling with a doggie. right now i am barely home and it would be abusive to have a dog. i find myself lonely for a little friend, especially since niki died this year. of course i wasn't living with him but he did leave an empty place in my heart. so now i am aching for a little love bug. i've been checking out the humane society and petfinder just torturing myself.of course i do "officially" have a sweet dog named maui but he lives on the coast and i know he wouldn't want to live in portland. i wouldn't either but that's how it has to be right now. maybe someday i'll have him again but not right now. so i'm always looking up little chihuahuas to adopt. i kind of want a puppy because those years are so special and they are real characters at that time but i'm not opposed to getting an older one. i get really weak just looking at these sweethearts.


OWN PLACE
another thing i really look forward to is getting my own place, without roommates. right now having roommates is all good but really, it would be nice to live alone. i wouldn't have to worry about leaving dishes in the sink overnight or not cleaning as much as my house does. i don't see my roommates that often so it's cool but i would like to be able to have a place to call my own, without buying anything. all i'm looking for is a nice little studio. not much space and real simple. the smaller the space the less room i have to fill it with crap and less to clean. i'll probably be paying almost twice as much but it will be worth it, and i will be making maybe twice as much.

APPLE SWAG
ever since i got my first ipod i've had apple envy, i guess. i play with my friend's iPhone and it's just awesome. i don't have or probably won't ever have AT&T so i'm not sure iPhone would be beneficial. instead i'm thinking the iPod touch. i'm definitely due for a new ipod and why not this guy?! photos, videos, music, internets, calendar, maps, games, really what can you not do on this thing (besides the phone)? right now it goes up to a 32GB but probably by next year it will have a bigger capacity. my old one was 60GB so i would like something similar. either way, a touch would be AWESOME!the other thing i want to treat myself with is a new computer. i got both my computers second hand. my desktop from my uncle and the laptop from craigslist, both probably 4 years old or so. ancient in computer terms. i've used macs and really like how they work and i hear they are great in terms of safety and security. i really enjoy having a laptop but i also like the power of having a desktop. if i can get the speed and power of a desktop on a laptop...well a laptop would be better so why have both. i'm looking at the macbook pro and it comes with up to a 250GB hard drive and 4 GB RAM. that's way more than my desktop has right now. of course it's gonna cost close to $3000, which is a lot of money but i figure it's gonna last me for a long time, do lots for me and just look at it!
okay so i know that is a lot of things that i WANT. it's not like i'll be making a killing right out of school so i'm not getting them all right away and these are just things. it's gonna be thousands of dollars to get it all and maintain it. my level of spending will go up probably exponentially but my income will go up a little as well. i deserve it right?! i like to think having one computer instead of two is simpler and more efficient. i can justify these things. although having a doggie will be a lot more work and money, having that little guy running around and waiting for me to come home is worth it. as for my own place, well, it's about time. i'm getting close to 30. sheesh, that's like an adult or something. i'm not into buying a house cause i don't think i can say i'll be here for longer than 5 years but you never know. eight months!

#74 - choices

earlier this month, my ipod died. thankfully, i recovered it somewhat and can still hook it up to my computer and listen to it. and i was smart enough to get an ipod shuffle awhile back to take to the gym. so i can still carry 250 songs around with me anywhere i go. it's kind of a pain cause i've had those songs for almost two weeks now and i want to listen to other stuff but can't. boo hoo. so i've got choices to make.

choice #1 - ipod classic.
it comes in black or white, starts at $249 and is available in 80GB and 160GB ($349). i had a 60GB previously and that treated me well. it didn't have the video and super bright screen but i loved it. classic would always be a good choice to make. the 160GB holds 40,000 songs. i don't have nearly that much but it would be nice. of course i have about 45GB in songs right now, don't have any videos yet. so that could easily take up a lot of space. the only thing is, would i watch a lot of videos necessitating an extra 80GB or would 80GB be sufficient for my mainly music-listening use?

choice #2 - ipod touch.
my parents just got one. it's so cool, sleek and ultra-neat. why would you NOT want to touch it? it's got so many cool applications and is the future. it IS a little spendier and without as much memory. starts at $299 for 8GB, there is a 16GB version ($399) and they also just came out with a 32GB ($499). so tempting. if you don't really know what the touch is, go check out the website. it is like the iphone without the phone. you've got wifi capability, safari, mail, youtube, weather, maps, notes, and of course the music!

it's a good thing i gave up shopping for lent. i have till easter to figure this out. it's gonna be a hard choice but i need to make the right one. i figure my next ipod will probably last about as long, about 4 years. so in the next 4 years what do i need from my ipod? i definitely want it to last longer but they don't make them to really last. plus, once i buy something they will come out with something better and cooler. technology becomes obsolete pretty quickly. so i guess i have a month. recommendations?

#62 - maybe the end

i am so distraught right now it's hard to think. the worst thing EVER just happened to me. i am totally serious when i say this is huge. i was all ready to leave my house and get on the bus for an hour's ride. i had my ipod, turned it on and picked a mason jennings song that was in my head ("nothing") to listen to. then my screen froze. then i tinkered around, trying the reset thing where you hold the menu and select buttons at the same time. then this...

i could not believe it. i had heard about the sad ipod icon but had never seen it. i was naive to think that my ipod would never die. maybe it only happens to other people, i thought. well i was pretty wrong. it is on disk mode right now, attached to my computer, which it still recognizes. so that is a good thing. i do not trust it to take it off "life support". i am afraid. i am very afraid.

it is a 60GB ipod, not the fancy video one, but the one right before - photo ipod. so it's kind of old. still has color screen and all that but i've had it awhile. it was stupid of me to think it would live forever. as of this moment, i have 11,274 songs on my ipod. it is over 40GB worth. my itunes library on my computer has 4518 songs, 16GB. where are all those other songs, you may ask?! well since i got my ipod i've lived in several places and had a few different computers. it is a lot of work to try and figure out all that music. a lot of it is stuff i haven't listened to a whole lot. i like to just give music a chance, i put it on there in hopes i'll listen and like it. in reality i listen to mostly the same 50 albums over and over. i need to work on that. what's the point in having so much music anyway?

maybe this is good for me. release my attachment to this thing. i just love music so much and being able to go everywhere with your whole library of music is just so great! convenience at its best. sometimes i'll just get into an eminem mode and there it is. i have a little ipod shuffle that i mostly use for working out but there isn't a screen so you can't see or pick the song you want. it's so different and only holds about 250 songs. it's great for the gym but otherwise...i need my classic. like i said, it's now permanently attached to my computer until i can figure out what to do. of course my warranty ran out and so for $150 i can see if they could fix it (no guarantees!) or for $250 i could get a new 80GB video ipod, which would mean putting in lots of work to figure out albums i need, get them and all that. ARGH!!!!!!!