Techno Lust and Catholic Guilt

I want an iPod...and I think that I am going to buy one next month. This is not an impulse purchase. In fact this is one of the most carefully planned purchases I have ever made. I put less thought into buying my car. Of course whenever I get ready to buy something expensive my Catholic guilt complex kicks into overdrive and I begin to analyze every aspect of the impending purchase.

1. Is the item worth this expenditure. In order to make this determination I have to estimate how much I will use an item before it I get bored with it and move onto the next thing. Because an iPod essentially serves as a portable receptacle for music, I feel confidant that as long as I enjoy music I will use the iPod. Also because part of the iPod experience involves transforming my music into an intangible form this will protect me from any attempts made by the RIAA to switch formats on me.
2. Always delay the purchase. If I can wait a month or two before buying something I know that it was a well reasoned purchase. I have been toying with this idea for over a year now and I have been ripping my CD's to iTunes since Christmas. I guess it is safe to say that my desire is not fleeting.
3. Deflect the guilt by imposing restrictions. This is one of my favorite things to do in order to minimize the guilt that I will feel for buying something shiny and new I try to figure out a way to purchase an item without draining my bank account. So I will delay a purchase until a week when I know I have worked extra shifts and I will receive a bigger paycheck. This time around I decided that I would buy my iPod entirely with pocket change. I have been rolling coin for about seven months and I am surprised to say that I have almost saved up enough.
4. Get the approval of others. I also like to casually mention my desire to buy an iPod to my friends with the hope that they will give me their approval. There are some pitfalls to this plan. Sam wholeheartedly endorses the iPod plan and would most likely drive me to the Apple store this afternoon if I asked him. Others don't see the point of it.
   

The point of the iPod is the feeling of liberation that I expect to feel when I can walk around carrying every single CD in my pocket. The joy of not having to deal with my car CD player when it arbitrarily decides to begin skipping for about a month. Not having to cringe in horror as passengers in my car get their fingerprints all over my CD's or God forbid, drop them on the floor. Best of all I won't have to worry about returning to my car only to find that some thief has stolen two binders worth of CD's. This is my greatest fear and not only because it would mean that I would have to undertake the impossible task of replacing the purloined discs but because I know that nobody would enjoy the music as much as I did. I guess I have to buy the iPod not for me of course but to spare the innocent thieves who might steal my music by mistake.