I woke up early today because I had to exchange two gifts; a DVD player I had purchased for my mother had to be upgraded (or downgraded depending on your point of view) to a DVD/VCR, and the MP3 player I purchased for one of my brothers didn’t work, so that had to be exchanged.

I first thought to myself “OH NOES! The stores are going to be packed, so I better get out early.” and thus hit the road at about 830. Come to my surprise, there were no lines at any of the service desks and I walked out of Wally-mart with a DVD/VCR combo for Mom. The Best Buy was out of stock of the player I had bought for my brother so I went ahead and returned it, thinking I could easily find a similar one elsewhere.

WRONG. Three Wal-Marts, two Radio Shacks, a Target, and a Circuit City later, I had jack and squat. You know you’re desperate when you’re going to Radio Shack. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t find the same model I had bought for my brother, there were hardly ANY mp3 players to be found for under one hundred dollars! I suppose now that mp3 players with 1GB of storage can be readily had for under $100, EVERYBODY and their cat wants one. Granted, there were some iPods, but I’m on a budget. I sheepishly told my brother that I would find one up here or order it online and get it delivered to him.

That (almost) taken care of, I said my goodbyes and hit the road back to good ol’ San Antone, as today is the day I get the keys to my new apartment and start moving out of the dump I’m living in right now. When I do this, I essentially play a little game I call: “How much crap can Randomizer cram into his car?” I currently drive a 2005 Dodge Neon and I’m discovering that it can hold quite a bit. After two carloads I have the bathroom ready to go; I just need a new shower curtain. The kitchen is almost ready, I just need to move over the food from the refrigerator/freezer, and I have some temporary bedding in place until the boys and I get the big stuff moved this Saturday.

I am enjoying moving my stuff over, just the essentials right now, and by New Year’s I expect to have everything major done and be livin’ la vida loca. No more crappy commute or trashy neighbors, just a nice quiet place where I can rock until I drop, then rock some more!