Shameless

This week, I learned I am two offers away from getting a free iPod, and it's all I can think about.

OK, I'm thinking about other things, too: my weight, my coming unemployment, my daughter's bad behavior in school, my crab (which I had to repair today and yesterday for auction in about three weeks), the 40 research papers I have to grade, a Halloween costume that I'll never finish, my husband's birthday today (I baked him a carrot cake and am cooking his favorite meal, chicken cacciatore, for dinner), my dearth of publishing credits (though a new poem just came out in a literary magazine called Sojourn (U of Texas), my credit card bills, my broken camera, and far too many other down-bringing things. I keep trying to look on the bright side, count my blessings and all that.

Maybe that's why I'm jonesing for an iPod. I don't need one, certainly, since I spend all my time sitting on my ass, fretting, the sound of melodramatic soap opera dialogue in the background, Free Cell on the computer screen. But no matter how therapeutic shopping can be (and even more therapeutic when you get $300 in merchandise for free!), I know that an iPod will not snap me out of the funk.

Still, I'm willing to experiment.