My iPod Talks to Me

My iPod has over 600 (and counting) songs on the list I play when I'm driving around and the local classical station switches to a talk show or decides it's time to hear the 101 Strings arrangement of "My Heart Will Go On."  And it's on the randomize setting because I like to live dangerously.  I've already had it play the same cut twice in a row, or two different versions of the same song back to back, or three songs by the same artist from three different albums.  And every now and then it even plays something that fits my mood or comments on whatever I'm doing in my life.

 

Today should have been a day off, but my teaching portfolio (aka that colossal waste of paper) was due, and what with auditions, classes, the freelance work I do to support my teaching habit and the phases of the moon, I pretty much started it today (except for loading my syllabi for the year on my memory stick, which I did last night so I wouldn't have to print them with my own ink and paper).  I got into the office at 11 (hey, it was supposed to be my day off), dealt with some student issues, spent an hour and a half in a meeting, then pretty much sat down to enter student evaluation scores (why is it the class you thought went best always hates you the most?), assemble materials for the two classes I was covering in depth and write eight pages of single spaced narratives in deathless prose relating what worked and didn't in my classes, what I had changed since the last time I had dealt with them and what I was going to do to fix all the messes the students and I had made.

 

I finally finished all my writing, hole punching, collating and assembling three minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline (only to discover the person to whom I was supposed to give this little folder of joy had taken off early--OK, it was a Friday for him, too).  But instead of feeling the great weight lifted from my shoulders, all I could think of was how many minutes it would be before the next one descended.  Plus, it was rush hour, and I still had groceries and other chores to do, and my blood sugar was tanking.

 

Then, in the middle of the drive, my iPod decided to have a Latin festival.  It started with Carmen Miranda's "Chica Boom Chic," which I can't really sing to as it's mostly in Portuguese, but at least I know where all the "Chica Booms" go.  Then came Judy Kuhn's Bosa Nova version of "You'll Never Get Away From Me," which really gets me rocking.  And as I pulled into the parking lot at Mama Fu's and Publix, Keely Smith was wailing her way through "When You're Lover Has Gone."  I swear, the iPod was telling me, nay forcing me to lighten up.  I've been on a roll ever since.

 

So, does your iPod talk to you?  (I was tempted to say "That's my light.  What's yours?" but I'll leave the soap opera ruminations for another post.)