This Thing Plays Music?

I’m the kind of person who has to think about things for a while before buying them. It took me so long to buy an iPod that it kind of became like a running joke between me and my husband. It was something I always wanted to have, but wasn’t sure how much I’d use. I love listening to music, but I hardly ever have time to do it.

So awhile back, I announced that I was going to buy myself an iPod if I ever sold a book. Then I sold THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS and went as far as walking into the Apple store to check the iPods out, before deciding to think about it a little more. I read some reviews on Amazon, trying to decide which one I wanted, but I still wasn’t convinced I’d use it. I waivered for another year, thinking about it every so often when I’d walk by the Apple store in the mall, but never enough to dive in and make the commitment.

Then THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS came out, and my husband made fun of me for still being iPod-less. A few weeks later he told me he read an article about the second generation iPod Touch, which could be used to check e-mail and get on the internet wirelessly. Add the fact that we were about to go on a cross country trip, and I was feeling some anxiety pangs about being out of touch, and I was sold. I bought the iPod Touch that night.

Now that I’ve had it for about two months, I honestly am not sure how I lived without it before. For one, it was great for traveling. It was so easy to check e-mail/use the Internet at the airport, and so much smaller and lighter than a laptop! And with all the apps and games that I downloaded, it kept me (and my son) entertained for hours on our really long flight. At home, I can pick it up, check my e-mail, check out a website, etc. anywhere in the house, any time of the day. Maybe this just makes me lazy, that I like the fact that I don’t have to walk upstairs and sit down at my computer to be connected with the world. But those of you with small kids know how hard this is to do when the kids are awake.

And oh yeah, it does play music. But I, um, haven’t used it very much for that yet at this point. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have only a few songs on there, and the only one I’ve really listened to is "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson. See, as I was revising my adult book two months ago, I thought of this song as the theme song for my revision, and since I bought the iPod just as I was finishing up revisions I bought this song from iTunes to keep me motivated. Or actually, my husband bought it from iTunes for me with a giftcard he had.

Which brings up another thing, I still haven’t exactly figured out how to use iTunes yet. But it’s on my to-do list. Along with getting some more music on the iPod. And finding the time to actually listen to it. In the meantime, I’ll be very happily checking my e-mail.