As I've mentioned, my birthday has come and gone. I have yet to mention any of my gifts. The reason for this is that I have not received anything tangible yet. All of my gifts for both my birthday as well as Hannukah were in the form of a check or cash. See, I've been saving up to get myself one of these beasts and a 20-inch display to accompany it. As you may guess, they don't come cheap, so I've been trying to get money together and I'm about 85% of the way there. I can buy the beast, but not the monitor...yet.

On top of that, Apple has yet to actually release the second revision of the G5 PowerMacs, which I'm waiting for anyway. So that's a bit of a snag.

I know I'll be ecstatic when the computer arrives at my apartment, but in the meantime I'm lacking that immediate gratification I have grown used to on my birthday. The days of unwrapping a huge stack of presents is gone. Granted, it has been gone for about ten years now, but I'm still feeling the loss. It's not the contents of these packages I yearn for, but the act of sitting down with all your friends, ripping open gifts, and ooh-ing at all the new Legos and Micromachines you've acquired. It is a sensation that happens much less often in the adult world and that's unfortunate. Next time a gift-giving event rolls around, I'm going to ask for a whole bunch of small things.

And so I'll offer you the opportunity to come over when I do purchase my PowerMac and watch me unwrap the computer and we can ooh, ahh, eat cake, and cry about getting one less pixi stick than Bobby.