iLove iPods

With my crusade against overusing communicative technologies, one may think I've got a vendetta against gadgets.  Believe it or not, I love gadgets.  I own computers, gaming systems, and person devices.  I like wasting electricity like most of us on keeping my refrigerator running, keeping the lights on, and watching my flat screen HDTV.  Having turn-by-turn GPS directions from my phone blows my mind!  With all of these things I have, I could lose all of them - except my iPod.

Music is such a fundamental part of my life. I remember as a kid stealing my Dad's boombox, tuning into my favorite radio station, putting it at the head of my bed, putting my pillow over it, and falling asleep to Casey Kasem lulling me to sleep with the smooth voice of his counting down the top 40 hits of the week.  I've been in a band of some sort since the 6th grade.  I've put out records, recorded a ton, done a lot of shows, and keep up with the goings-on in the industry.  All of this magic can be captured in a tiny box called an iPod.

As talented as I may be, one talent that I am notoriously known for is forgetting personal stuff in random places.  Sometimes I'll re-leave the same item at someone's house.  It's not that I like doing so.  It's just that I get distracted easily (just try driving with me!)  So, every time I arrive and leave a location, I have to do an inventory for the gear I tend to misplace all the time - wallet, keys, phone, and iPod.  When I don't do this, something in the world feels wrong.  The hair on the back of my neck stands up.  I begin foaming at the mouth in the fear I've lost something important to me.

Yesterday I went to Sketchfest to support some friends/colleagues in various shows they were doing.  I took my jacket off prior to the first show I saw and thought, "Make sure you check for all of your items before you leave the theatre."  After laughing heartily, I got up, put my jacket on and felt three of the four items I always check for.  My iPod was no where to be found.  Like a madman, I checked and rechecked every outer and inner pocket I had and still nothing.  At this point, I started fighting the oncoming panic trying to set in.  I checked under my seat - nothing.  I checked the bathroom - lots of pee on the floor but no iPod.  I then thought that maybe I had left it in the car.  So, I nervously sat through 4 more 35 minute shows at this point pushing the thoughts of some hooligan going through my iPod thinking that he got himself a goldmine of my music in his hands and just how much of a fool I was to have lost it into the back of my head.  Once the shows were over, I checked at the box office and with the event coordinator for help.  No iPod.

I walked back to my freezing car hoping in vain that it would be there.  It wasn't.  I then started the car to warm it up and it was tuned to the FM frequency that I normally listen to my iPod on via a crappy transmitter.  This pretty much told me that I had lost it.

The whole trip home I thought, "Man, how am I going to break the news to my Wifey that I lost my iPod.  Man I'm an idiot!"  I started making plans for how I was going to get another one and not lose it (GPS tracking devices were dancing in my head).

I got home and decided for shits and giggles to check my other car I had used that morning.  I opened the car door and sitting in the middle console was my shiny iPod!  HOLLA!  I quickly grabbed it and put it in m pocket.  All my fears went out of the garage and then the feelings of idiocy kicked in.  There I was at the nation's largest improv festival brooding over an unlost iPod instead of just enjoying my time there whole-heartedly!  Dumbarse!

I sent a note to the Sketchfest personnel thinking them for helping me look and that I had found it.  My iPod and I need to spend more quality time together so I don't ever misplace it.