mp3 player; and Shopping

Yesterday I finally started playing with the mp3 player I got for Christmas. (I actually asked Leo for an iPod, figuring I'd settle for a Shuffle, but I'm glad that in the end he got me a cheaper, but more versatile, less-known brand. With my Sansa SanDisk, I can actually CHOOSE the song(s) I want to listen to...imagine!). I think I put off messing around with it because, well...this is really embarrassing, but I think I'm getting old. Technology is starting to intimidate me. I did ask for the thing, so it's not too intimidating yet, but still. Complicating the issue is the fact that, with kids and constant interruptions, I just don't have the time to sit down and mess around with a digital toy for hours on end to learn how to use it, the way I used to. Anyway, yesterday Audrey and Leo were gone for a few hours, so I sat down while Aislinn napped to figure it out. I did get interrupted (several times), but I was still messing with it at bedtime.

After experimenting with putting a Norah Jones song I already have on CD on it, I decided to go for the big cahuna (whatever that means) and download an mp3 from the internet and figure out how to transfer it to the Sansa. My first official download? True Blue, Madonna.

You're about to learn what a conformist loser I was in high school.

I decided that the first playlist I wanted to compose would be favorites from when I was in high school, stuff that would send everyone out to the dance floor. Because all I ever listened to, all I KNEW, was pop music. I had never heard of real punk or alternative bands. I grew up in a pretty small town in the middle of nowhere. Thirty miles away, in a town maybe thrice the sizxe of mine, but also more or less in the middle of nowhere, my future camp buddy and college roommate (hi Jur!) somehow somehow managed actually to hear of even CHRISTIAN alternative music, let alone stuff like the Pixies (they were alternative, right?? see what a music nerd I am?). I guess thirty miles closer to Indianapolis makes a difference. Anyway, I was in my own little world of Michael Jackson, Def Leppard, and Debbie Gibson. New Kids on the Block Ruled. So they are what I consider my oldies, my nostalgia music.

I am still working on my 80s playlist. It only has five songs actually downloaded so far (but I have a list of others I plan to get).

Do you really want to know how boring I was (am!)?

• True Blue, Madonna
• You Give Love a Bad Name, Bon Jovi
• Pour Some Sugar On Me, Def Leppard
• Out Of The Blue, Debbie Gibson*
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper

*I actually sang this song my senior year in the high school talent show. I dressed in a denim "bubble" skirt and blue Lycra leggings. I was totally a Debbie Gibson wannabe. Sad but true.

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I got the entire afternoon AND evening OFF to go SHOPPING today!!! Of course, the evening part was spent at Borders, predictably, but it was awesome.

First I hit Target. I'm with Kalki. Target rocks. I actually have to drive 20 minutes and two towns north to get to the nearest one, so Kalki in Redneck Valley actually has it better than I do. But it's probably a good thing, because I do spend way too much money when I go there. Today? Spring jackets for both girls, three spring outfits for Audrey, clothes for me, a new purse and billfold, and two new lipsticks (I'm living dangerously and trying something other than the generic rose color I usually use). All this totalled...um...ummmm...I really don't want to say. It was not really an OBSCENE amount of money, but you could say it was fairly indecent. Especially since when I left Target, I went to the mall and got a few more things at B. Moss (but they were having an awesome sale, and I scored three sweaters for the crazy price of $20).

Back to Target. I made a couple of exciting discoveries.

1. Did you know you can buy purses with LIGHTS in them? How cool is THAT? Trying to find that pen in the bottom of your purse? No problem, just click on the light, and you'll find it twice as fast. Target had probably 8-10 of these to choose from. Unfortunately, none of them fit my specifications (small, fairly neutral, and non-metallic). So I have to be satisfied with a lightless purse at least for a couple more years (yeah, I don't update my purse very often!)

2. Target carries lots of girls' pants with adjustable waists. They are like those maternity pants that have the adjustable elastic buttoned into the waistband, which I thought was amazing just for MATERNITY pants...but girls' pants...! Audrey is a skinny Minnie and has virtually no butt, even for a 5-year-old. She may well be the only child with a concave bottom (and she may well kill me some day for writing that). Pants that fit her in length tend to fall off her waist. So these pants are quite a find for us.

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I've been listening to my same five songs for about a half hour now, and even though I'm enjoying the stereo right-ear to left-ear opening riff of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, I'm ready to add some more tunes. Probably something like Mickey by Toni Basil or You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC. What???