A Question for the Audience

Nina and I are currently consumed by a certain series book, Hammered.... hence the reason we're so behind on our other reading and reviews.  This book is the last book for a while from the author, so we're savoring it.

One of the many hilarious scenes in the book is when a character announces that a certain inanimate object has changed her life.  The scene made us both laugh out loud.  For a couple days!  I won't ruin your experience by telling you what is so fascinating that it has changed her life... it also won't be as funny without her "delivery".  ::I seriously just snorted as I wrote that::



So it got Nina and I thinking about what thing has changed our lives.  Mine is actually 2 things, but they're almost the same so I'm not forcing myself to choose.   The ipod and the iphone.

When I got my first ipod in the early 00's it changed me.  Putting all of my music in one place, that's not only easily accessible but portable too, affected me forever.  One word. Random Shuffle.  ok that's actually 2 words or technically a phrase, but whatev.  Random Shuffle reminds me of songs that I loved once but played too many times in a row and got sick of after a week.  It moves from punk, to folk, to low-fi, to pop, to rock, to top 40... and everything inbetween. I heart random shuffle.   But the ipod in general has seriously changed how I listen to music... and the fact that I can listen and take it everywhere.

The iphone takes my love of music and adds a phone, a GPS, a Camera and now a video camera, Angry Birds, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and a Kindle all in my back pocket.  Of course there are tons of smart phones out there at this point, but I will always have a soft spot for my iphone.  The way everything is seamlessly tied in together is amazing.  I can be on the internet looking for a Thai restaurant on Yelp in a neighborhood I'm not familiar with, and you can click on the phone # on the site, and it'll take you to the phone directly, or you can click on the address and it'll pull it up in "maps" and you can get walking/driving directions to the location.  You can be in a heated argument about whether Robert Duvall or Kevin Bacon have been in more movies (true argument after I decided that there should be a game called "the 7 degrees of Robert Duvall" too) and you can pull up the IMDB app and figure out who's buying who's drinks.  You never miss an opportunity to capture the moment, because you always have a camera in your pocket.  I have to stop, because I could talk forever.  But yeah, my iphone is a life changer.

Nina says:

The item that has changed my life is my coffee maker. Anyone who knows me, knows I can't live without my crack... errr... I mean coffee! Yay! COFFEE! Maybe this sounds cliche. Maybe it sounds like I have a habit. But when your an insomniac, it comes with the territory.

Ever since high school, I have had terrible bouts of insomnia. I'll go 3 or 4 weeks at a time with only sleeping 1or 2 hours a night. That becomes a little problematic after a while.  So, when I went to the doc  and told him I refused to take sleeping meds, he prescribed another kind of medication... coffee!  It allows me to be functional, and doesn't mess with my erratic sleep schedule. Ever since then I've loved it. My first job was as a barista in a coffee shop, and I still miss it sometimes.

The day I bought my first coffee maker was glorious! I went to BB&B and scoured the shelves. I knew exactly what I wanted. A white kitchenaid with a timer, and a 12 cup carafe. I bought it. I took it home. I brewed my first pot. I fell in love.

Last christmas I was at my parents, and realized my mom had an espresso machine stashed up in that crap hole of a cabinet above the fridge. (Come on! You all have them.... and you know it's full of shiz.) The poor thing had been up there for years. YEARS! I dubbed that day "operation: free espresso!" I tried to steal... I mean.... rescue it. And got caught. By my mother. Well, crap. So I decided I wasn't beyond begging.

I begged my mom to give in to me. And she said no. I pleaded. And she still said no. I even did that pouty thing that ALWAYS worked when I was 5. Alas, I am no longer 5, and she still said no.  So, for now I have another white kitchenaid coffee maker.  It's great; don't get me wrong.  But one day, I will have a better one. Because coffee has changed my life!


But we want to know:  WHAT ITEM HAS CHANGED YOUR LIFE?