vanity, and a cold shower

i have been accused of vanity. and unfortunately it's quite true. well, first it was the big apartment, then the laptop and the display, and now this camera. all this is quite expensive. or they used to be. unfortunately now they look fairly priced, quite affordable. and what more, my new friends and colleagues -- who are paid not much more than i am -- consider even more expensive things very affordable. and then there are those things that come with your job -- a secretary, funds for travel and such, etc. etc. it's a slippery slope, this getting used to vanity... (of course, i have been a little too vain with my charity too. the last few months have seen me donate probably more than what i had donated all my life.)

now about the cold shower. i don't have a car. and i have no immediate plans to get one. now, if i get a car, that would be vanity! (somehow no one seems to believe so.) anyway. i don't have a car. but i have a bike, which despite being old, and despite its partly broken gear system which can get stuck if i try to change the front gears, has kept me good company. i have been regularly using it ever since i moved to champaign (and will be, until the snow forces me to use the public transportation system here, excellent as it is).

and today, i went to this party. (vanity vanity!) i went by my bike, and so it was only prudent to ride it back home instead of leaving it there and hitchhiking back. or so i thought. but hardly had i set off on my bike when the skies cracked open -- complete with thunder, lightning, whistling winds and what not -- and poured buckets of ice cold water on me...

i just got back, safe but drenched. just now as i warm myself over a cup of hot tea, it doesn't seem too bad -- the ride in the rain -- when you have a cosy room (with good heating) and dry clothes waiting back home. i guess i don't need a car yet...