The Prince, His Castle, and his Tunes

Checked in with Little Brother today; it's his fourth day on the job and apparently they're having a huge anniversary/Halloween party at his work. Although he hasn't permanently moved into CT yet, and only has about 5 days worth off clothes with him, he was able to pull together what sounds like a pretty convincing Clark Kent/Superman costume. Of course, he had to dress up because anyone in a costume was entered in a raffle to win an iPod nano. Yeah, aparently my brother is working in a frat house.

Now, my brother just got an iPod nano for his birthday last month, which begs the question, what would he do would a second? Please God let the answer be "give it to his sister". All this is very ironic, because on the Daily Heights Message Board, we've been discussing the recent shooting in the neighborhood where a 16 yr. old was shot by the cops for mugging people for their iPods at gunpoint. For some reason this morning, I was in an "oversharing" mood and I felt compelled to post this:

I am a 24 year old white, college educated woman with a full time professional job and I cannot afford an iPod or a digital camera or whatever. I've never thought of stealing or shoplifting one, but everytime I see someone my age or younger whipping one out, I get jealous. I get a little jealous and I think, "what the fuck? how come they have one and I don't?"

(Followed by this: "Of course, I have other possessions I can go home and comfort myself with. And I have resources to express this feeling, and I can foresee a time in my future, albeit distant, when I will be able to afford the things I want. If I didn't have these comforts, who knows how this feeling might grow and motivate me....")

So it would be only fitting for my brother to have two iPods and me to have none.

Speaking of the Prince, I was talking to my Dad last week and he told me my brother had been shopping for apartments in CT and found a one bedroom he liked for $1050/month. I said, "Dad, that's more than I pay a month. A lot more. And he's going to be making less than I make to start. Don't you think he should keep looking? I mean, I live in New York City for God's sake. I'm sure he could find something less for a grand."

"Yeah, I know what you pay, but your brother needs to live in a nice place. He can't live in a place like that." [Translation: "Your brother can't live like you, in a dark hovel, rolling around in your filth in the middle of a ghetto."]

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I haven't seen your new place, but you have to admit it Nance, your last place was a dump."

"Well, yeah, it was kinda of dumpy. But it was cheap."

"Your brother needs to live in a complex. With ammenities."

"Right. Because he's a prince."

"Right."

So my brother ended up taking this one bedroom, five minutes away from his girlfriend's apartment, and he called me on the phone to talk about it. I didn't want to be negative or scare him that he was in totally over his head, but it was time to introduce him to reality.

"Well, you do it, " he said. "You're fine, right?"

"Well, I pay less in rent than you. And I make more money. And I'm in a lot of debt." The good thing is my brother won't have anywhere near the horrible credit card debt I have, so that has to count for something, right? "Also, I try to keep my monthly expenses down. I don't have a TV. No cable bill. I don't have an Internet connection. No wireless bill. Hell, I don't even have a land line."

"Yeah, well, I've got to have cable and internet. And then there's my car payment ..." Meanwhile I'm thinking in my head, oh my God, does this kid know he has to pay taxes?? Hopefully there is nothing else to spend money on in Stamford. Nope, he tells me. Stamford is a good size city with lots of places to go out.

Good luck, Little Brother. I hope it works out for you, I really do. And if you ever need to borrow money, don't even bother asking. This well is dry. In the meantime, I hope you win that second iPod. Maybe with the help of eBay you can convert it into a car payment.