Convinced

Okay, so I've pretty much talked myself into buying an iPad.

I was going to buy one while we were in Chicago, actually. We met our friend Rachel for lunch, and Matt teased me with the information that there was an Apple Store in the same shopping center. We considered stopping in after lunch to "Oooh" and "Ahhh" at the pretty shinies, and he may have thought I was joking, but I had every intention of buying an iPad right then and there. A planned impulse buy, if you will.

Unfortunately, by the time lunch was over, the kids were both tired and cranky and we decided they would not have the patience necessary to follow us around while we indulged in an extended geek-out, so we did not go to the Apple Store.

I thought about making an iPad my next diet reward, because my next diet goal is technically my last diet goal, the point at which I will switch from dieting to maintaining. And that's a big deal, and deserves a big reward, right? Except... it's sort of a moving target. I'm fairly happy with the weight I am now. Most of my lingering dissatisfactions have more to do with the excess stretched-out skin (which dieting won't fix) and my overall proportions (which dieting won't fix).

I'm still actively dieting right now, because I'd kind of like to drop another three or four pounds to get to the next roundish number -- but I admit I'm not putting a lot of effort into it. I've been pretty much floating for the last couple of months, and the telling bit is that I'm not all that concerned about it. I'm okay with where I am, even if the charts tell me I should lose another fifteen pounds.

So rather than reaching some foreordained "goal" and throwing myself a big party before flipping the switch from "lose" to "maintain", apparently I'm more doing a slow melt into maintenance mode. Which is possibly healthier in the long run, but it makes it hard to decide at what point I have earned a big diet reward, like an iPad.

Then I thought about making an iPad my reward for getting my book published. I mean, publication has been a dream of mine for many, many years. But let's be honest: my book is not going to make enough money to pay for an iPad. Even the lowest-end one, without any accessories. And isn't seeing my name in print its own reward, anyway? (And since it's an e-book, does it really count as publication?) I'm waffling, here... so maybe it's not quite big enough to count?

And then I was thinking about my trip to Atlanta that's in a couple of weeks. I'm going for my cousin's wedding, but while I'm excited that I'll get to see that side of my family again, we're not exactly close. And while I'm sure their friends are wonderful people -- again, not close. I'm not going to be hanging out with them constantly over the weekend. So I've been pondering what to do with my spare time while I'm there. I'll have a few hours Friday afternoon, and most of Saturday (the wedding is at 5, so I'm on my own until 3 or 3:30 before I have to head back to the hotel to change), and most of the day Sunday.

I'm considering going back to the zoo or the aquarium, so I can actually pause to look at the things that interest me instead of being pulled along at top speed by the kid(s). I might look up some attraction I've never been to before -- possibly even something not very kid-friendly that I might not otherwise get to see.

I briefly considered staying in my hotel room and taking advantage of being free of the distractions of family to get some writing done. And then I thought, "Nah, I'm already going to be lugging my camera with me and trying to travel carry-on only; I don't want to drag the laptop, too." And then a quiet little voice in the waaaaaay back of my head said, "You know, if you had an iPad, it would be a lot easier to write on the road..."

"No, no, no," I told myself.

"And you could load it up with pictures to show Grandmom and the rest of the family. You know Grandmom loves pictures."

"But..."

"And it would make it easier to read e-books at the gym."

"I'm not sure--"

"You know you want it."

So... long story short: What with all those excuses and rationalizations combined, I've pretty well talked myself into it. I'm still waffling slightly over whether to shell out the extra $130 for 3G capability. (If I can't get a wireless connection, what will I want to do over 3G on the iPad that I couldn't do on my phone? How do I know when I haven't yet quite worked out exactly where the iPad will fit into my daily life?)

I was waffling over whether to order it online or make a trip to one of our (semi-) local Apple Stores (they're both about an hour away). But the online store says "Ships in 7-10 business days" which means it might well not arrive in time for my trip. So I need to figure out when to do that.