My turn.

I don’t really spend money on material possessions for myself, unless you count what I spend on t-shirts. (I don’t.) I spend it on them. That’s how it’s been since Bella was born pretty much. Of course I’ve bought myself things over the years, but compared to what they get? I’m like a hobo. I won’t think twice about dropping a large amount on my daughters, but for me? Rare.

That is going to change. I’ve almost decided that within the next few months, after I pay off my loan shark, I’m going to buy myself something nice. I deserve it.  It might not happen, I frequently buckle when I’m about to press the ’submit order’ button if it’s not something for my munchkins and I don’t doubt that it’ll take me some time to work up the nerve to make this purchase, but I know that I want it. And I have ideas!

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An iMac. My laptop has been giving me a lot of trouble lately, and while I love him, he needs to either be replaced or he needs to be used less. He shuts himself down at inopportune times, he runs super hot, he’s just one malfunction away from me losing everything on him (and yet I still haven’t backed up, jeeze). Since just about all new computers now come equipped with Windows 7, it seems to be a good time to make the switch to Apple, if I’m going to do it. I do want another laptop, but it’s a not a dire necessity, and I miss having a large display. I can postpone that, especially if I keep Patchouli (that’s my laptop’s name).

I really love the iMac’s all in one design and the wireless keyboard and mouse. I love the minimalistic design and the clean lines of it. I’m a girl and I like pretty things, and I’ve yet to see a computer as aesthetically pleasing to me. I love the huge-mun-gus display. I’ve polled all the people I know and a good 90% that have experience with both PCs and Macs say Mac. I’ve talked a lot to the photographers I know and every single one of them has said a Mac is best for photo processing and workflow, and if they don’t have one, they really want one.

I have reservations about getting one, many of the just regular PC to Mac things that everyone has such as right clicking, the cost of the systems compared to that of PCs and a couple of other things, but yeah. This is one of my ideas.

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A Nikon D300. I currently have a d40 (the smaller camera on the right) and it’s great, but I’m really limited. I feel constrained, I’ll blow up a photo that I know could have been much clearer, much crisper and I know that it’s not necessarily me but it’s the camera. The D300 is not a step up. It’s like…6 steps up. It’s closer to the D3X, which is Nikon’s top of the line SLR for pros, than it is to the d40, which is the very bottom rung. I love my current camera, but as I explore Flickr and JPG and a bunch of photography blogs and sites, I see that my initial reason for getting a DSLR in the first place (to capture really good memories of my daughters) would be better served with a better camera, better lenses, better everything.

Now there are in between cameras and I’ve looked at those as well, but I don’t think that’s what I’d want to do, especially since my hope for the distant future is to own one of those D3s. I would rather be closer to the top than the bottom, get a feel for the functions, the weight, the everything, so that when I do accomplish that absolute goal, I feel like I don’t have as steep a learning curve. And, if I ever did decide to start *gasp* doing this photography thing fore real for real, I would already have a camera capable. A great starter. Also, it takes pictures like this. And this. And this. And oh, this. I want to take pictures like that. I believe I could, if I really devoted the $ to it. And I don’t mind purchasing a refurbished from Nikon because I know they cover their refurbs under the same warranties as new, and their customer service on my current (purchased new) camera has always been excellent. I’d also consider a used if it was under warranty as well, or had one available for purchase. And I know that it’s the lenses that make the shots, and that rack up the bills.

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A new television. I didn’t have a television in my room for quite a while, and I was fine with that. I don’t really watch tv because I’ve been spoiled by too much DVR and not having it here makes it so that I only watch my shows on the internet. Then my grandfather bought a small television for the girls, and now we have that. And too many times am I looking at something on this itty bitty screen and wishing it were larger, clearer, better. If I get a TV, I’ll be getting a 32″ flat screen. It’s the perfect size for my room – the length of space between were I normally would be watching from and it’s location and if I move, it would be fine for a living room display too, short term.

If I get a television, of course I will get a blu ray player and what not – that’s a given. But, I will get an XBox 360 Elite at the same time and my concern with that is the future time/$$ suck. I know how I am with video games. I get obsessed. I start one and I will. not. stop. until I’ve completed it or entirely given up (which is rare). I’ll spend hours and hours researching upcoming games, reading up on and reviewing current ones. I’ll spend too much $$ that I don’t have on new purchases. I’ll just…it’ll be ugly if I haven’t gotten any better at maintaining my composure over it in the last 5 years. Especially with XBox Live and the fact that I already know like 20 people that have texted/twittered/emailed me their usernames so that I can add them immediately when I procure my system. I mean, I could prevent the $$ suck by just pirating the games and movies that I don’t want to pay for, but the time? Yeah, unlike the past, I have responsibilities that cannot be postponed so that I can finish a level. If I don’t have a handle on that, it’s not a good idea.

Also, with the prior ideas, I can justify the expense. I need a computer for school, for writing, for play. I have to have a reliable computer, it’s just not optional. I could potentially use the camera to generate income, so it could be seen as an investment, and the memories I’d capture – that I already capture – truly are priceless. With the entertainment system, it’s basically just “I want it.” Although, it is the cheapest of all the options.

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New York City. Not really material, nor is it optional like the things above. I’m going for BlogHer ‘10 next August. I would have preferred to go to Comic-Con, but today I discovered that the 4-Day passes were not already on sale, but are sold out. So yeah, 2011 it is, which will be good anyway since The Avengers is still looking at a summer 2012 release and I know the Comic-Con previews and panels that year will be SO FUCKING GOOD.

I could go on and pay for the plane ticket and hotel stay, and put aside whatever spending money, instead of doing what I did last year and procrastinating on saving for so long that I almost didn’t make it. My issue with this is that I promised the girls that the next time I got on a plane, they’d be going with me. And I don’t see a trip (that requires a flight) in my budget between now and then. I could circumvent breaking this promise (it would be my first broken promise and also the first lie I’ve told them) by driving up. I’ve taken that drive before, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But parking at a lot for a week in NYC? No. Thanks. Yes, I want to stay for a week. I stayed in Chicago for a week this year, not my plan and it was hard the first couple of days but I came back home so happy and refreshed that I knew I not only wanted to make it an annual thing, but I needed to.

I suppose I could watch for cheap Jet Blue flights to somewhere inexpensive, and close, between now and then and take the girls on the first one that I was able to. I don’t know. I’d have to come up with something.

I have other ideas as well, but I’m tired of typing now.

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