Today I was an ass...

But, believe me, it was unintentional, and I regret it.

One of my best friends gave me my birthday gift today and I looked like an ungrateful prick when I accepted it.

Now let's backtrack a bit. Steve and Roman, my coworkers and best friends, have kicked ass when it comes to gifts. Before any of my other friends get in a hussy, you guys kick ass with the gifts, too, but this isn't about you - that will be another blog. Anyway, for my birthday last year, these two cats got together and bought me an X-Box. That's the type of friends they are.

Another thing to keep in mind before I go into this is Steve is great at thinking ahead. He's probably one of the best people I've ever worked with because of his ability to see things that, well, just aren't there (or aren't there yet) -- and planning for them for when they are there.

Me? I'm not quite as good. Hell, I try, but when I'm trying to think what's going to happen one week down the road, Steve already has the plan for the next year.

So he came in today and called me over to his desk. I knew he had picked me up a CD case from Microcenter for me, so I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was my birthday present. He handed me that as well.

It was this iPod car charger/FM modulator. Basically, you put it all together, plug it into the cigarette lighter, find an unused FM frequency, drop in your iPod and you got your tunes through your car speakers while it's iCharging.

Well, the look on my face when I saw it originally must have said something because he immediately said, "Dude! You don't want that!"

"My stereo is an MP3 player." I said. Still not thinking.

"Not a 40gig one," he replied.

I looked pretty ungrateful, but it wasn't that. I was just confused. I felt it was like giving someone a portable CD adapter for their car when their car had a CD player. But I only thought that because I wasn't thinking ahead. Call me stupid.

Well, good thing Steve was doing the thinking.

When I got to my truck after work, I put it all together, found a frequency on the FM dial and iPowered it up. Oh Lord, is this thing gonna come in handy. Quite simply, it rocks, and I wish I had seen its potential when I first got it.

Put it this way, a CD will hold 750mb of music. My iPod holds 40Gigs. And playlists. I have unlimited iMusic from numerous sources. I should have never have doubted my boy.

So, Steve, I apologize. I apologize a thousand times. I know I said it to you earlier, but here it is for the world to see. I feel like an ass. I should have never have doubted you. Once again you came through with a kick ass gift. And I thank you for it.