Treating Myself

I'm not the profligate type. Spending money isn't something I particularly enjoy doing, especially after having lived independently of my parents and understanding the value of a hard-earned buck. However, when you're on your own in a foreign country and making some decent coin, the temptation to put it toward something frivolous and not inexpensive frequently arises. With that in mind, I decided to contribute to the Korean economy, as it's a fine country worthy of my patronage.

I recently discovered that the downtown shopping area has an MLB store. Yes, that's right: an MLB store. An entire store dedicated to Major League Baseball merchandise.

Yeah, just try to keep me out of this place.

Most of the hats at the MLB store are stylized versions of real caps (and rather tacky, in my opinion), and most of the shirts, jackets and whatnot are too small for me, but hey, it's MLB! The league I love! I'd been there twice before and the notion of buying a certain piece of merchandise had entered my mind, so I decided I'd treat myself by purchasing it at some point. Today was the day I finally added this item to my possession, and it served me well on the walk home. What was it?

A Montreal Expos cap! I hadn't seen any around town, so I decided my first favorite team needed someone in this country to pay homage to it.

I thought I'd be a trendsetter. I thought I'd be a true original. I thought I'd be the hippest of baseball hipsters. I thought incorrectly. Before I even left the shopping district (about half an hour later), I saw a guy wearing the exact same hat! On the very day I'd decided to start this trend, I learned someone had beaten me to the punch!

Pride comes before a fall, they say. If the fall doesn't give you the right dose of humility though, you can always rationalize it by convincing yourself that the guy was in the store at the same time you were and saw you purchasing it. "Look at that! A foreigner, who must surely know more about Major League Baseball than I do, is buying this strange-looking red-white-and-blue cap! It must belong to the best team in America! I want that cap too!" Yes, that has to have been what happened. No doubt in my mind.

What did I do with that approximate half-hour between buying the cap and leaving? I went to the music store and browsed. Since there are several Korean artists I've grown to like, I wanted to see what the available selection was there. I'd had trouble in the past finding a singer I like, Jang Yoon-Jeong, but today I finally discovered where they were hiding her. Unlike Secret with all their mini-albums, she actually releases full albums, which is a better value, I must say. Since I was in a splurgy mood, I decided to add nuna Yoon-Jeong to my roster of Korean artists.

A beautiful face and a beautiful voice

There were only two songs on the album I'd heard before, but I ended up really enjoying the tracks that were new to me. As far as I can tell, none of her songs have any English in them, and many lyrics strike me as very simple, so perhaps it can help with my learning Korean.

While I'm not planning to become a habitual big spender, I think it might not be a bad idea to treat myself once in a while. I ended up with some good music in my collection and my retro White Sox cap ended up with a new best friend:

 The 1994 World Series matchup that should've been