WANT.

To make up for a couple of "downer" posts recently (what can I say? I've had lots of evening meetings in the past 10 days and I HATE evening meetings...work a full day then spend an evening trying to moderate a group of women who canNOT stop the stupid side-conversations long enough to allow the necessary business meeting to proceed. Got home after 9 pm each time. Not happy about it), I'm going to just mention a few things that I would buy for myself, if I weren't so tight with my money...

1. A satellite radio and subscription to same. Radio around here sucks...for music, we have "both kinds of music", neither of which I like. And the talk-radio is a bit better, but it's getting unappealingly spittle-flecked as the election approaches. And on the weekend, AM radio is 100% dismal. Investment shows, shows devoted to mortgages (?!?), shows that sell some kind of snake-oil crap...

Part of the reason I've not bought one is the impending (is it still impending?) merger of XM and Sirius. I don't want to buy a receiver and find I bought the Betamax of satellite radio. (Actually, that's what keeps me from buying a lot of new technology: I'm really turned off by learning that what I just paid $200 [or whatever] for will be obsolete in 8 months).

2. an iPod. I've resisted it for a long time (and probably will continue to, as I'm a staunchly PC person, and I'm not sure how well apple products would talk to my laptop). Still, it would be nice to be able to download my favorite CDs onto the tiny little thing and have it to listen to while I work out. Or to carry with me for those times I get stuck somewhere. I'd want one with the biggest memory possible; shiny, new, and small are less vital to me than being able to put more than two or three Beethoven symphonies on it. (Because it would be a mostly-classical iPod).

3. Built in bookcases, and trade out the guest room bed for one of those modernized Murphy beds. My guest room is kind of an embarrassment. It's sort of the catchall room and if a relative calls to tell me they're on their way, I have to scramble around and move stuff so they can get INTO the bed. And it's also my office. And my exercise room. But I also need more bookspace. (And built in bookcases would cover up the fugly yellow wallpaper).

4. Also for the guest room, one of those desks that closes up into an armoire type of thing. For obvious reasons, and also because it's psychologically nice to be able to "close up" your workspace and not think about it.

5. An ice-cream maker. One of those spiffy little ones with the sealed up container you freeze, so you don't have to screw around with rock salt. (And yeah, I realize this is deeply contradictory given my OH NOES SO FAT yammering of before, but you know...once in a while it would be kind of nice to have homemade ice cream. I rarely BUY ice cream because it seems like I'll eat a small serving out of the container, and by the time I think of it again, it's all freezer-burned and nasty. But if I could make one or two serving's worth at a time...that would be fantastic. (And I could freeze yogurt, too. I happen to like frozen yogurt).

6. A shredder. This is probably the only thing I would actually buy. But I have several years' worth of old bill-stubs that it's time to get rid of. But the idea of just putting them in the trash skeeves me out (once in a while we do get trashpickers) and I can't imagine spending evenings sitting down to tear them up.

7. And heck, if I'm daydreaming: finish off the attic. Make it into a big big room, plumb up there and put a nice new bathroom in, and use it as my "suite." The benefits of this would be multiple...the downstairs room I use now as a bedroom could become my office/exercise room (or a library), I'd be a little bit up above the damn barking dogs in the neighborhood (not just my neighbor's dog, now. Seriously, if I were a person given to violence I'd be tempted to shoot the things some nights, that's how much of an annoyance they are). And if I had a good framer, I could get him to put up the extra-special-good insulation to block out the sound.

That won't happen, though - for one thing it would require reconfiguring a lot of the house's systems (the ductwork was retrofitted and a lot of it is routed through, and takes up a lot of room in, the attic). And the thought of having that level of disruption of my home (one of my friends has had kitchen remodeling going on for two solid years because the guy she hired works slowly and doesn't show up when he says he will) scares the hell out of me (And it would probably make more sense in the long run just to buy a different house and MOVE). But it's sort of fun to daydream about - this clean new quiet space, room for my stuff, being up above some of the noise and crap.