I feel like I have a ton of stuff to talk about here - so I'm probably going to do a couple different posts. Because it sounds like fun. :)

I'm a little hyper this morning. I got up really early this morning. About 5:30. I was awake so I got up. Really unusual for me lately, especially since the whole radio/car stereo disaster*. I got all the normal stuff out of the way (shower, dry hair, de-cat/de-wrinkle shirt, etc.) and I think I did all of the extra stuff I needed to do this morning. I'm going to spend the night at my parents', so I needed to pack a bag and make sure the cat would be ok (extra food and water, clean litter, pulling the blinds up high enough for him to be able to watch the birds, etc.). I even had time to pack up my knitting and hunt down the battery chargers.

I even made it to work on time! and by that I mean I made it to my desk on time, even after stopping in the cafeteria for coffee. (impressive, huh?)

My mood became somewhat dampened after my 8:30 meeting though. I spent a half an hour listening to people tell me that what I do is a waste of time. I've been hearing this a lot lately and it's starting to get old. It's hard to be motivated to do your job when everyone tells you there's no point to it. :P

I'm still in a good mood though - I've decided I'm going to take my cute new Captain Jack action figure on an adventure in my building. There's a sea of cubicles here, he should feel right at home.

and OMG - did anyone watch The Office last night? I loved it. (water cooler talk here is more likely to be complaining about how Lawrence Welk is no longer on the air. *sigh* I really do feel like I have no one to talk to here sometimes! (although I could actually talk about LW. It's just kind of boring!))

* The radio/car stereo situation: The CD player on my car stereo has been slowly dying all winter. Well, a few weeks ago it finally gave up. I listen to a lot of CDs in the car, so I was pretty disappointed. I started listening to the radio. There are about 4 stations I listen to (I change stations almost every time an ad comes on) but I mostly listened to Drive 105. Well, they changed Drive 105 into Love 105 - love songs from the 60's through the 80's. No thank you.

This severely limits my options. I want to listen to my mp3 player in the car, but my car stereo is 7 years old. I remember asking Sig the Saturn salesman if they had any radios that had a line in port. He hadn't even heard of a line in port. Everyone kept telling me to get one of those FM transmitter things. I kept saying "I had one ten years ago - it was crap!" They kept saying "I have one, it's great!" So I bought one. It's crap. Everyone owes me $20. It works pretty well if I hold the short cable between the transmitter and my mp3 player in my fist all the time. Which makes driving kind of awkward (and forget about eating a gas station doughnut as I drive to work...).

So - my options are: get a FM transmitter thing that connects directly to the wires going in to the back of my car stereo ($70); buy a used Saturn factory radio to replace my old one and hope the CD player still works in it ($100); or buy a new car stereo with radio, CD, and line in port ($100+). I don't actually want a new car stereo because they are all so ugly. (well, they are!)
This radio station problem is also causing me to be late for work. I had to set my clock radio to a different station. But when my alarm goes off at 6:30 instead of getting the station I want I get some faint version of CBS radio news. Which I sleep right through because it's boring. Cities 97 usually comes in full strength about 10 minutes later, but half the time I sleep through that too (they talk sooo much! I want some music! and something besides Paul Simon's Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes! (and I actually really like the Graceland album)).

Really the solution to all my problems is to get the 30g MP3 player I want ($200), a new car stereo with a line in port ($100+) and a docking clock radio/mp3 player thing ($100+). Unfortunately my budget is about $20 - $50. If you know of a better/cheaper solution please let me know!