I’m still catching up. Not only did I find the human love of my life in the past few months, I found the technological one. After much time spent lusting after one, I finally broke down and bought myself an iPod. Well, charged myself an iPod to be fair, but that’ll all be taken care of once Uncle Sam (and whatever character might stand in for the state of South Carolina) send be back the money they took out of my paycheck.

New Year’s weekend was the breaking point. I spent it with Staci, up north of here. Every motherfucker I ran into seemed to have one. Even one guy who didn’t have the computer to handle iTunes managed to snag a mini for the xmas (he lent it to a friend who filled it with songs he might like and has loved it ever since). Sitting at a restaurant bar awaiting a table I saw two different ones and an empty case possibly hinting at a heretofore unseen third iPod in the same location. That was the last straw. I returned home Tuesday the 4th of January, headed to the Apple Store around midnight, and had it in my grubby mitts by Friday morning.

I love it, by the way.

Some time back a friend told me that it would “change my life,” and I chuckled slightly at the hyperbole. I’m not chuckling now. This damned thing really has changed my life. I’ve rediscovered all kinds of music I’d let sit fallow in my iTunes folder, buried in a long list of other songs competing for my time. For months now I’ve had We Shall All Be Healed by The Mountain Goats copied to my PowerBook Tinúviel while listening to not one single note. Now I’m completely hooked on it.

Oh, and the accessories I can buy for it. Sigh. It’s enough to make my little techno-nerd heart go pitter patter.