iPodophile

When I was seventeen, I bought myself a portable record player with detachable speakers. In lieu of headphones, I would put the speakers on either side of my pillow, turn up the volume, and listen to my Rolling Stones records. That's probably why I say 'what?' a lot now. Over the years my stereo equipment has become a little more sophisticated, and I have had actual headphones instead of deafening speakers. What I have never had are those little 'bud' type headphones that fit into your ear hole. You see, I have freakishly, weird ear holes that won't accommodate 'ear buds', they just fall right out. If I try to force them in, I end up either breaking them or hurting myself. This is one reason I have never been attracted to the iPod.

Just before we left on our Chicago trip, Mark sent away to Apple for an iPod so that he could listen to some music on the plane/train/bus. On the day that Mark's iPod arrived, he disappeared into our bedroom, plugged it into his computer, and started the job of loading the thing. From the other room, I could hear cursing, crying, and all sorts of squeals and moans. Apparently you have to go through some hellish work before you can get an iPod to operate. After two days, and hours of downloading, Mark finally got the thing to play music.

Unfortunately for me, since the iPod has arrived I have found myself holding one sided conversations with Mark on a frequent basis. I will unload with a long and complicated discussion about the merits of moving to Chicago, and just as I am making my point I realize that Mark has those stupid iPod ‘buds’ in his ears, and hasn’t heard a word. This happened, again and again while we were in Chicago. On the bus and train, I would be blathering on and on, only to have him ask loudly, (iPod users don’t know they are shouting) “Which stop is ours?”. I do have a solution to this problem, and Chandler is going to help me with it. It involves the iPod’s uncanny resemblance to one of his chewy strips.