ever since i returned from my trip to new york a couple of weeks ago i've been loving living in sf even more. as much fun as new york is i think i can only take it in small doses. hands down the best thing about my trip to ny this last time was definitely the press toast thanks to leslie and sharon. why i've never had it before i have no idea but it's so damn good and it certainly shut me up for a good fifteen minutes or so while eating it. but i think the cramped spaces and the over crowdness of ny has made me appreciate being in sf even more. now i am loving our apartment, loving where it's located and loving walking to the muni station every morning. my ipod may have a bit of influence in this too since i'm loving the shuffle feature but i honestly could not be more happier right now with my living situation.

however, my month of bliss just got even better last night. for those who know me, you know i am a shopaholic. i can't help it. when i first moved up to sf a little while ago, i went a little crazy on the expenses but after that first month i really tried my hardest to keep it under check. i was doing pretty well too what with commuting down to san jose and then being shipped off to the east coast leaving me no time to shop although now that i think about it, i did shop quite a lot in new york. but anyways, now that i am back working on my sf client, my muni stop on the way home drops me off right in front of a huge shopping mall surrounded by a gap, urban outfitters, anthropologie, french connection and the list goes on. you can imagine what this means for a shopaholic like me. and i've been on quite a bit of a shopping spree of late too. although in my defense i did end up returning some of the items.

but yesterday on my way home, i was about to walk past my shops as usual being the good girl that i am but and this is a big but...out of the corner of my eye what do i see. a three story grand opening of forever 21. no joke...three stories. i got so excited and had to duck in for a quick look around knowing i'd be back the next day to look some more. it was definitely the highlight of my week so far and it's only tuesday.

on top of all this, a h&m is opening up this fall in the same area which is just going to kill me. i've never lived walking distance to so many shops before...all a mere four blocks away! needless to say, i am even more so on cloud nine and it's fabulous. i love it.

evites. i personally love them. they've been around quite a while but it wasn't until the past year or so that i've noticed people using them in abundance. it used to be really just limited to birthday gatherings but now there's evites for dinners, superbowl sundays, snowboarding trips, golf tournaments even for a wedding. as great as this invention is, there is one aspect of evites that just drives me nuts.

and to what am i referring to? i am referring to those who view and have no response. ever. for those who have ever created an evite you know that as an "owner" you are able to see just who exactly has viewed the evite and the date of viewing. you can tell if the person has checked it everyday or not checked it at all. to me, if you've checked it even once, the polite thing to do is to come back and respond sometime before the event takes place. all it takes is two clicks of the mouse. scroll your cursor over to no and hit enter. voila. simple as that. that would be so much better than doing nothing at all.

we all know that once you read an evite, you pretty much have an idea if you're going to go or not. someone had to go to all the trouble to think of you, add your email to the evite and has in essence almost created a personal invitiation to attend. so not responding is just a big no no. there are those i know who like to wait a couple days to respond to not seem desperate which is perfectly fine by my book but the key here is you must respond eventually. when i'm hosting an evite, i like to get a 100% response factor. very type-a i know but if i notice that someone hasn't checked at all, i get worried. i'll go out of the way to maybe shoot a quick online message to see if they've checked their email recently or perhaps there's a second email address i could send it to.

i make a personal point for each evite i get to make sure i respond. i wouldn't want to be a hypocrite now. i myself have a mental list of those who i know will respond timely and those who will check the evite every so often but never respond. it may seem like such an innocent thing but i'm telling you...your vote matters. so please next time you receive an evite in your inbox, be sure to make it a point to respond one way or the other. otherwise you will stay on my shit list forever. not really but you get the drift.

i did it. i finally caved and joined the masses. i watched as my friends dropped one by one while i debated internally should i or shouldn't i. and just one month ago i finally thought i had closed the deal on the whole dilemma when i decided once and for all, i am not getting one but here i am...just a little while later and a proud new owner of a silver mini ipod. with a silver hard case to match. now i know what you're going to say. what the hell took you so long. or why the mini and not the regular and for a while there, i was convinced if i was to get an ipod it had to be a regular because my friends i was brainwashed. brainwashed into thinking the regular was the only way to go but now that i have my mini and am loving it i am so glad i decided what i did. although you may want to ask me later when i've reached my max songs and will be in need of an upgrade.

for the longest time i was under the impression that an ipod would be lost on me. a waste if you will as i was never much into downloading music or was never all that into electronic gadgets as my other half is. up until this past year i was still using my walkman which only played tapes as my gym accessory and sam would lend me her cd player for long flights and i'd tote my cd's around with me. but a couple of things have changed from that time to the present.

for one, i moved in with jon g who was constantly downloading songs to his laptop and when he finally showed me, i realized it really is as easy as one two step. goodies was my song of the moment for a long long time...you can roll your eyes now if you'd like. two i decided my tape walkman was way too bulky and decided to invest in a mp3 player and after much research by my twin i purchased the creative muvo and this my friend was the beginning. the thing was so damn easy to use and once i was able to walk around the city with music in my ears, i was one happy girl. however, i quickly came to realize forty songs was not so much when you're commuting to san jose each day on the train but i stuck with it.

then bren informed me he was able to get a student discount on the mini ipod (pink was not an option, only silver or green) and well this was just the final straw. i gave the go ahead to purchase and after a short wait list the mini ipod is mine. i used it all the way on my flight to new jersey yesterday and i am in love. even with the white earphones...they fit my ears so perfectly! well at least the left one does, the right one hurts after a little while. in either case i have no complaints and can not wait to get home to start transferring my music!

now i just need to decide whether i should keep my muvo or not.