Shopping Spree Gone Awry

I decided that our house needed a new TV. We have this cool pad, cool roommates, etc, but this dinky little tv that you can't even hook a DVD player up to. Granted, my own tv in New York never got used, but I figured it might be nice to play the occasional video game or watch a movie from time to time in the house. Plus, shopping for techie gadgets always cheers me up when I'm feeling low. And I'm still dragging myself out of the dumps. George agreed to drive, Francis wanted to come along to buy some speakers, and Huy as well, just for the vicarious factor.

So after spending the morning at school wrestling with the 2003 accounting midterm (we have our accounting midterm on Friday morning), I came back home and we all piled into George's car. Queen was going on the radio ("I Want To Break Free," of all songs), Francis and I were singing in the back seat, and George was doing his usual Italian racecar driving in the VW Golf when a moto cut sharply in front of the car ahead of us, which then had to break suddenly, and next thing we knew we had hit. Oops. Poor George. He was very bummed.

So after doing the paperwork exchange, we were again on our way to L'illa and the FNAC. I picked out a sweet flatscreen and got the invoice to bring to the cashier. And then... the strangest thing happened. I waffled. Me! The queen of big budget impulse shopping. The girl who dropped $3000 in 5 minutes on an Apple G4 Powerbook during a coffee break from work last August. (Hey, I had worked hard! I deserved it!) But there I was in the FNAC, surrounded by techie toys that make me drool, and I was gripped with buyer's remorse before even buying anything. I ripped up the invoice and suddenly felt much better. Then I bought some recordable CDs.

I'm not really sure what happened. I'm sure our little accident dampered my mood because I felt so badly for George... particularly since he agreed to drive for my tv shopping extravaganza. But I think it's also related to the impending doom the upcoming midterms. Chances are good that I'll fail them both, no matter how hard I study, so should I really be buying a cool European TV when I could easily be getting booted back to the States before I can say "Accrual Method of Accounting?" (Whatever THAT means!)

Mom and Dad are coming back in 3 weeks to spend Thanksgiving with me. So maybe by then, with midterms a distant memory and finals still far enough away (but my birthday very close!) we will find a way to soup up our living room with a cool tv and surround sound speaker system.

And anyway, even though I didn't really buy anything in the end, electronics stores still have a way of lifting a girl's spirits. Well, maybe just this girl.