I got busted bigtime last night...
I was telling my friend Michelle about my awesome Chanukah present. And it is awesome. It's a tiny, 1-gig mp3 player, pictured above all the way to the right (mine is silver). I listen to books when I'm walking with Nina. It's small enough to hang around my neck like a necklace and did I mention it's tiny? And only available from wal-mart (romantic music stops with a crash of cymbals). Yes, I shopped at wal-mart. Twice. Once to get mine and once to get one for Arwyn. But (as I pointed out to Michelle) I don't shop at wal-mart, I shopped at wal-mart. I know now why Spanish has two past tenses; one for things you did repeatedly and one for things you only did once. It was really hard to bring myself to do it (and it was only online), but can I mention again how tiny and cute this gadget is? And how much I love it? I suppose my membership to the super lefty treehugger anti-whatever group will revoked. So be it. What hits home a lot harder is that Michelle was appalled that Lorien shopped at wal-mart. The important lesson I will take from this episode is that friends are my moral compass; they keep me focused when my desire overtakes the needs of the larger world community I belong to. Thanks, Michelle, for keeping me honest.