Dance with me down a grocery aisle

2005-02-18 - 8:56 p.m.

So today I finished up working my 7th day in a row by working a 9-hour shift. Yesterday Miko asked me to come in to work an hour early just in case Apple called in sick again. She didn't, so I was extra, but I worked anyway. I wanted the overtime!

I was really tired by the time I got home, though. I came home and basically did nothing. I did, however, hop on my newest major acquisition and work up a sweat. Did I tell you about it? Last Saturday I went out and bought myself an exercise bike at Gart's. Here it is:

It was definitely one of the lower end models, but it does exactly what I want it to do. Here's a funny thing, though: in the instruction manual it says I should keep my hands and feet away from all moving parts. I'm still trying to figure out how to pedal the bike then!

While I was on it I got some more reading done in my book. I'm reading Sissy! by Tom Mach. It's historical fiction about the Civil War and honestly I wouldn't have picked it up if the author hadn't asked me to. The thing is, I don't like it. In my opinion it's pretty poorly written. Now I'm trying to decide what to do. I think I'll finish it at least, although it's taking me forever, but then when I review it should I be honest even though I know the author will read my review? I've never quite been in that position before.

While I was out shopping last Saturday I also found the Half Price Books in Tukwila. It's a pretty nice one. One of the best parts about it is the fact that they actually had good music in their country section. Not only that, but the country section was up where I could see it. At some of the other Half Price stores they put the country music down on the bottom shelf so you have to stand on your head to see it. It's very annoying. But anyway, I restrained myself and only bought 3 CD's. I bought Martina McBride's "Emotion" and Chad Brock's self-titled album for $3.98 each and then Cyndi Thomson's "My World" for $4.98. As you can probably tell if you've been paying any attention to my songs of the day, I'm pretty enamored with my Cyndi Thomson CD. It's been getting a lot of play time around here, that's for sure. Also at this Half Price Books I bought a brand new copy of "Kate & Leopold" on DVD for less than $10. I was actually going to buy it at Best Buy a few weeks ago, but they didn't have it in stock. So now I can get my Hugh Jackman fix any time I want!

Speaking of music, today Apple brought the soundtrack to "Garden State" into work. I borrowed it during my lunch break and took it home and ripped it. On my way back to work I was running a little late. I set the CD down on a shelf while I put my jacket on to go outside and then didn't realize I didn't have it with me until I was halfway to work. I knew Apple would be pretty upset if I didn't bring it back, so I ran back home to get it and back to work again. Whew, then I really was late, and sweaty too!

So I've told you about all these things I've bought for myself recently, but don't you want to know what I'm thinking of spending my money on next? Well, first of all, I want to buy a bike rack so I can take my bike places and ride it. I had so much fun last time I went out biking with Magellan. Of course I still haven't gotten my gear shifter fixed on my bike so I need to do that, too, but I'm still shopping for a bike rack.

And now I'd like to refer you to Eucalia Fact #64 (thanks to Argolam for reminding me of my 101 facts). Yes, the other thing I'm looking into is buying myself a guitar. I've wanted to learn to play for quite a long time now. I tried briefly during my freshman year of college, but wasn't able to maintain an adequate interest level with so much other stuff going on in my life. But recently I've been really, really wanting to learn. Maybe it's Magellan's passion for music that's rubbing off on me, or maybe it's just me. Unfortunately, I know nothing about guitars. I don't want to buy a super fancy one in case my interest in this doesn't last five minutes after I buy the guitar, but maybe getting the cheapest guitar isn't so good either because maybe the cheapest guitar will be more difficult to play. I figure if I turn out to need to go professional with my new guitar playing skills I can always upgrade to a better guitar. I don't know, at the moment I'm thinking of just getting the cheapest one I can find that's not half-sized or hot pink. I'd also like to get one with some sort of case and a strap and maybe a tuner and some sort of instructional teach-yourself-guitar book. The cheapest I've found this so far is around $100. Does that seem unreasonable?