I recently purchased a Nintendo DS Lite and I love it. It’s small, it’s streamlined, and it’s pink. What’s not to love? Granted, I haven’t removed it from the box… but when I do, I know I’ll become obsessed with it and with playing it and with buying games for it and dominating them. And therein lies the problem. I have a confession to make. I love toys. I love shiny, new, fun toys. And if they come in pink, so much the better. You see once I unwrap that perfect little pink toy I’m going to be spending copious amounts of time on it. And right now with the school Talent Show, two ongoing contracts, a new upcoming contract, a potential move and tending to one Meemsy, one Bear and one Drue, the spare time I have is spent sleeping and taking the occasional shower. Which, believe it or not, I do… on occasion.
On a separate but related tangent, I miss traveling for business. There is nothing like being trapped in a metallic tube, thousands of feet above the Earth, forbidden to use your cell phone or the Internet. And yes, I know Virgin America now offers free wireless. But let’s keep that between you, me and the fence post shall we? Back in my days at BASF, I traveled one good week out of the month. And I have to say, I read more books during my year long tenure there than I have since. Well except for the Chicago trip, but with the amount of insanity going on and the turbulence on that plane, you too would have been holding on for dear life, cussing out your marketing manager and wondering if smashing to the ground would excuse you from attending the trade show said manager promised you would not have to attend. Seriously, people. It was a trade show about fertilizer. FERTILIZER. And in that one word, you now understand why I no longer work at BASF.
But I do miss the free time I found on airplanes. And if the flight was direct and over 2 hours I could nap and manage to read 100 pages. Oh the bliss! Oh the joy! To have that time nowadays, I have to run the dog silly at the dog park, bribe Meemsy with pillow space on Drue’s bed AND bribe Drue with a DVD. And even then, one of them somehow finds my way into my room at that perfect nap point – or place in the book where you just cannot set it down – and interrupt my bliss. Flight attendants do NOT do this. See my point?
Anyway, besides the fact that I simply don’t have the time to spare or a flight to escape onto to play my new DS lite to my heart’s content, I enjoy delaying my gratification. The longer it sits there, the more I’ll enjoy it when I do finally open my toy. I know, this is very un-geek of me. Proper geeks buy something the moment it comes out, tear it open in the car on the way home and then trust that their hacked GPS will get them there while they randomly push buttons and see if they can break it or hack it before they even walk into their house. This keeping crap in its box for DAYS is complete and utter #jerifail. I understand this. You may all hang your head and wonder why you hang out with me. Go on. You’re going to do it anyway. But the point that I’ve decided to make is that if I don’t do this, I’ll ignore the script I’m supposed to finish writing, the content I need to review and the new story boards that need building. I’ll be tempted to sneak DS play time during uber long boring conference calls (not that I would EVER DO THAT… ahem). I’ll end up not doing what I am supposed to do and then end up pulling all nighters later this week to make up for the time spent screwing around. And that simply won’t do. So my lovely DS lite will sit in its box for a few more weeks until spring break comes around. And then, maybe, I’ll have some time to obsessively play. You know, in between prepping for the camping trip, the camping trip itself and the two days spent at Busch Gardens.
Right…
