Cathy's Quest: The Red iPod Nano

Reasons I desperately wanted an iPod:

1. If there's one thing I've learned from the movies, it's that every girl's life deserves a killer soundtrack.
2. My mom works the night shift as an ER nurse. That means that she is trying to sleep during that hour when you've just gotten back from school and want to play the stereo loud enough to make the windows rattle.

Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman New: $12.56 | Hardcover List Price: $17.95

1. After Dad died, money got pretty tight. Mom was making once-a-week trips to CostCo to buy 20-count boxes of Mac N' Cheez and 144-can crates of tuna fish. I was scrounging my vintage clothes the old-fashioned way, haunting thrift stores. Any disposable income that came my way mostly went for art supplies — not much left over for shiny techno-gadgets.
2. For a long time it seemed like you could only get iPods in that shiny white color that felt like something from the home furnishings department at IKEA. What goes with that? Ladies blouse in Varnished Pine? Stained Sandalwood jeans?

I got fired the next day for swearing, but a) I had a really good reason, and b) nobody told me the intercom was on. But that's another story...