Definitely feeling muuucchhh better. Had a great time at the lake, it was just Dave and me, so we were able to just relax for an evening. It was so nice.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow my iBook and iPod and a bunch of software updates will come home! I’m totally iNesting.  I cleaned off the dining room table (my desk for now) in honor of the new stuff. Heh.  I figure I will go there first tomorrow, because Dave is working weird hours and will be home in the event my CC company needs to call and verify we aren’t being defrauded.  We rarely use our card, and when I booked our trip for Florida LAST fall, it wouldn’t go through, and after 2 tries (on a Sunday morning, I think, it was definitely a weekend) the phone rang, and it was the CC company just making sure it was US using it. I think that’s great, but I can’t be home to answer the phone if I’m using the card at the uni, know what I mean? So, if I pick it up FIRST, Dave will still be home in case of any CC weirdness.  Then, I’ll hide it really good in my car, and go to ….. WORK. Holy hell, I’m going to WORK!

I hope I’m not there TOO long, after all, I have STUFF I need to DO, like setup my new digs on the new iBook, download firefox, the widgets I lust after, take pics of my room and use them to test out the functionality of the new iPhoto and PSElements3, and then, you know, POST THEM.  Also, I must play with my new iPod Mini to see what that’s all about, and finally, call Andy to come over and play as I work on converting him to Mac. I doubt it will be a hard sell, once he’s tried it.  I am WAY too excited. I need to make a to-do list or something.

One of the things we talked about on the beach was our money situation, and our five year plan and what we hope to do etc, etc.  It came up because I was talking about how I long for a digital SLR (in the future) and that hopefully, my M.Ed will pay off and I will end up with one.  We talked about stuff for the house, dammit, windows are just not going to happen until I have a real job again, and what we’d like to do and when.  And we talked about the expense of a baby, and how I’m just not worried, because there are enough friends who are DONE having kids that they have already told me to raid their stashes (anything new would just be because I am greedy, honestly) and really, all a baby needs is food, clothing and shelter — and if I can homebrew some food, goodwill some clothes, and convert one of the many new drawers we just got into some sort of bassinet (assuming I didn’t get a handmedown in time) we’d be all set.  Plus? My mom will be batty with delight when she becomes a grandmother, and I figure the baby will benefit greatly from that.  Baby expenses? Just not a worry yet.  And, I said "who knows when we’ll actually GET a baby, anyway?"  You just can’t plan. When it happens, we’ll work it out.

Then, we stopped at an Irving on the way back.  Dave went in to get a Dr Pepper, and I watched the people at the pumps.  A car pulled in, and a middle aged woman approached a truck that was parked next to us and asked the guy for a couple bucks for gas. "I need to get to work and I don’t got no money."  He gaveher some, and I couldn’t hear where she was working, but I heard "200 dollars a week, it’s something…" as she took it.  2 teenagers/young adults got out of the car, both of them smoking (at the pumps, and WHILE PUMPING) and put in $2.45 worth of gas — not even a gallon.  The guy in the truck pointed out that a tire was almost flat, and the teenage girl had a portable air pump, and she set to fixing that as we drove off.  I described the scene to Dave, and how it was so typical of back home, so depressing.  Here, yo don’t see people panhandling at the pump, or buying gas a gallon at a time, or even smoking at the pump.  It’s not like we’re so refined in the big city, but it’s DIFFERENT.  And it really put our money concerns into perspective. No, we don’t have new windows this summer. But, we do have a great house (with okay windows) that we;ve been able to update to our tastes.  We have Real Furniture.  We each have a car in the yard, and I’m picking up a second iBook tomorrow.  The only things we OWE on is our house, his car, and my student loans, which are in deferment because I’m in school.  I’m charging the iBook tomorrow, but paying it off on the next statement, once my student loans come in.  I get the iBook before I have to teach on it (I may not lab assist, but work on the ed dept’s 1:1 laptop initiative) and I get a bunch of LLBean credits.  We are VERY, LUCKY. And we know it. 

Hopefully, in a year or two, I’ll have a great D70 and some cool lenses. But only after the damn windows.