I think $2500 is steep. I could get one with an external hd, 3 year applecare, and tons of other stuff for $2600 here.
There is also one listed for just $2300 CAN here.
You should be fine with 2gigs. I think OSX allocates and uses its memory incredibly efficiently. Even with what I use the OSX side for, with everything up and running, I've come close to maxing it out, and even then it was overhaul as far as open apps and what I was doing. I was incredibly impressed.
On the windows side however, I've already had apps shut themselves down as it ran out of memory while rendering what I thought was a simple scene with a few photometric lights.
Granted, I will in the future upgrade to 4gig, I think you should have some fun with your new toy and see what it can do with 2gigs....I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.