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My not-so-grown-up Christmas List
Dec. 19th, 2005 06:56 pmIt’s Monday December 19th, and after the big weekend before Christmas, I’m still lacking in presents for Chris and others. I finally got the Christmas Cards off, even though I wasn’t able to put personal messages on each one like I had hoped. I’m very Martha Stewart when it comes to Christmas Cards.
I did go to Tuba Christmas over the weekend and it was different, for sure. Since it was raining, they couldn’t play out on the lawn of Williams Tower, and tower management, who begrudgingly lets them rehearse in the building’s auditorium, would not let them play in the building’s lobby, like they did many years ago. I guess rental fees apply. The auditorium is not big enough even for the players themselves.
Instead, we have 250 or so tuba and euphonium players in the lower level of the parking garage across the street. This is a smaller number of musicians than normal, where there’s somewhere around 350. Many of the players are from local schools, so luckily the size of the group drowns out the missed keys and blatty sounds. The acoustics in the parking garage was surprisingly good.
After catching up with some friends, I went off shopping in the Galleria, and then out to Memorial City Mall. Both, as expected, were packed, and because of this, I didn’t really find anything. It’s difficult to browse in a crowd of people who also seem to be as clueless as you are. I did find an old friend who was playing with a brass quartet in the mall, and talked to him for a moment before that had to play again.
My cold was getting worse, so I eventually went back home and slept, running any plans for Saturday night. Dinner with the parents was fine, after we watched the President’s “see, I’m still compassionate, but we need to stay the course” speech. Luckily that didn’t carry over to mealtime conversation.
Of course, as I shopped, I selfishly thought of really great gifts – for myself. I know what I’d like, but mostly they are items that are too expensive for me to ask anyone to buy for me. I have the new car, which I’ll be paying for over the next 5 years, but there are other things, things I’ll have to make a decision on weather to buy or not. I guess I may be looking at the after Christmas sales to see if any of these items are affordable.
So, here’s three things from my personal, “Dang it, I’ll just have to buy it myself” list:
New Glasses – this is something I’ve needed for a while. I’ve had my current glasses and prescription for about five years, if I recall. I have insurance, I just haven’t done it. This may happen soon, but now I’m looking for the right frames.
A new iBook – My old iBook is from 2001. It’s slow, the hard drive is puny, and it’s time for an upgrade. Given the rumors that Apple will bring out the new Intel chips in a new iBook first, I might get a good deal on the better equipped older models. Of course, if they come out with the rumored media Mac mini, all bets are off.
A New Television – The oldest of the things that need replacing, the 27” television is a relic from the early 90’s, and the loving bright ghosts when anything too orange or red appear really make watching Project Runway a real project. I’m looking for something of similar size, but HD compatible (Because in 2008, we’re going HD, folks) and possibly flat-panel, but they are expensive. Hopefully some Super Bowl sales might bring the price down.
Still, those things...and more, will have to wait until after the new year. I still have a couple of days to complete my shopping for other.
I did go to Tuba Christmas over the weekend and it was different, for sure. Since it was raining, they couldn’t play out on the lawn of Williams Tower, and tower management, who begrudgingly lets them rehearse in the building’s auditorium, would not let them play in the building’s lobby, like they did many years ago. I guess rental fees apply. The auditorium is not big enough even for the players themselves.
Instead, we have 250 or so tuba and euphonium players in the lower level of the parking garage across the street. This is a smaller number of musicians than normal, where there’s somewhere around 350. Many of the players are from local schools, so luckily the size of the group drowns out the missed keys and blatty sounds. The acoustics in the parking garage was surprisingly good.
After catching up with some friends, I went off shopping in the Galleria, and then out to Memorial City Mall. Both, as expected, were packed, and because of this, I didn’t really find anything. It’s difficult to browse in a crowd of people who also seem to be as clueless as you are. I did find an old friend who was playing with a brass quartet in the mall, and talked to him for a moment before that had to play again.
My cold was getting worse, so I eventually went back home and slept, running any plans for Saturday night. Dinner with the parents was fine, after we watched the President’s “see, I’m still compassionate, but we need to stay the course” speech. Luckily that didn’t carry over to mealtime conversation.
Of course, as I shopped, I selfishly thought of really great gifts – for myself. I know what I’d like, but mostly they are items that are too expensive for me to ask anyone to buy for me. I have the new car, which I’ll be paying for over the next 5 years, but there are other things, things I’ll have to make a decision on weather to buy or not. I guess I may be looking at the after Christmas sales to see if any of these items are affordable.
So, here’s three things from my personal, “Dang it, I’ll just have to buy it myself” list:
New Glasses – this is something I’ve needed for a while. I’ve had my current glasses and prescription for about five years, if I recall. I have insurance, I just haven’t done it. This may happen soon, but now I’m looking for the right frames.
A new iBook – My old iBook is from 2001. It’s slow, the hard drive is puny, and it’s time for an upgrade. Given the rumors that Apple will bring out the new Intel chips in a new iBook first, I might get a good deal on the better equipped older models. Of course, if they come out with the rumored media Mac mini, all bets are off.
A New Television – The oldest of the things that need replacing, the 27” television is a relic from the early 90’s, and the loving bright ghosts when anything too orange or red appear really make watching Project Runway a real project. I’m looking for something of similar size, but HD compatible (Because in 2008, we’re going HD, folks) and possibly flat-panel, but they are expensive. Hopefully some Super Bowl sales might bring the price down.
Still, those things...and more, will have to wait until after the new year. I still have a couple of days to complete my shopping for other.
