Christmas in New York

I promised over a month ago to give you an account of my travels over Christmas and New Year's. It turns out that my trip was very fun, but none too eventful in terms of glaring contrasts to the OC x-mas. I did have a few experiences worth noting, however. On the way to New York, my boyfriend and I had a lay-over in Atlanta. We had time to walk around and explore the airport. Scouring the area for new and different southern things to comment on, I did see something that surprised me. There was a vending machine for iPods and iPod accessories. I'm serious. Just pop in 350 dollars and a mechanical arm reaches across the inside of the glass display case and gently grasps your new electronic device. Then, the arm returns to the dispensing shoot and, voila!, a new iPod. I have to admit that I expected my time away from the OC to further bolster my opinion that So Cal is a hotbed of materialism and decadence. In fact, I was mistaken. The plague of flagrant commericalism has spread nation-wide, so it seems. When an investment that costs a quarter of my monthly paycheck becomes an impulse buy, like so much trident and Cosmo, I'm either just not keeping up with progress, or I'm the only one keeping perspective in all this craziness. OK, enough ranting. My trip continued, and I will too after class...