sarah · dessen

A couple of weeks back, after Livejournal went down for a weekend, I realized how dependent I was on it. Now, I'm feeling the pain of missing something else: my IPod.

I LOVE my IPod. I use it all the time---when I work out, when I walk to and from school, when I'm getting ready in the morning (I have one of those things where you can dock it with speakers, very cool). Which is to say, it is a daily part of my life. It's also about a year and a half old, and lately it's been having some problems. The clock, for instance, hasn't worked in months. Also, the battery doesn't hold a charge for very long. And lately, it's been freezing up occasionally, and none of the buttons will work for however long, sometimes never, and you have to let the battery drain down, then charge it up again in order to bring it back to life. Inconvenient, yes, but whatever, I use it a lot, I'm okay with it. But this week, it started to really freeze up a lot, so I decided to dig out my Best Buy Warranty Plan, which I paid fifty bucks for when I bought the IPod, and take it in to see what my options were.

At first, things were looking good. REALLY good. I explained my problem, they looked at the IPod, then said they'd replace it. The guy went and got a brand new 20 GB, just like mine, and started to do the exchange. I was holding my breath, thinking please, please let this be as easy as it seems. I sign the receipt, he takes my old IPod away, and then.....returns, and says, oops, we can't just exchange it, we have to send it off to be fixed. Sorry.

So close and yet SO far! Seriously. I pointed out that when I bought the warranty (fifty bucks!) I was told it meant if anything broke it would be replaced. Apparently, no. Apparently, Apple had so many coming back they told Best Buy not to honor that anymore. News to me, right? The bottom line was this: if they sent it off and it could be repaired, they'd ship it right back to my house. If not, I'd get a new IPod. So that's where I'm at now, waiting. It's excruciating.

Walking across campus yesterday, everything was so QUIET. Not the same! And I couldn't even drag myself up on the treadmill today. (Although I am always looking for an excuse not to do that.) I am brushing my teeth in silence. This used to be normal, but now I am hyper aware of the quiet. It's weird how you can become so dependent on music. I think I'm suffering withdrawl symptoms. My husband has a Mini, and he offered to let me borrow it, but I wasn't sure I could handle walking to work, or brushing my teeth, while listening to Agent Orange, or The Bad Brains, or GBH. Not exactly peaceful, and going to work is stressful enough.

Then again, silence is supposed to be good for you. Soothing, calming, all those aromatherapy adjectives. Maybe I should embrace this. Meditate. Try to calm down. (As everyone is always telling me to.) Enjoy this respite, listen to the wind, the air, the earth turning........yeah, right. That'll work. Instead, I think I'll just sit here and pine, waiting for my IPod and its return. Soon. Soon......

have a good day everyone!

So it's Friday night, my friends Courtney and Cameron just left after a LOVELY dinner, and all of a sudden I remember the comment someone left on my journal today saying that the Food Network's $40 Dollars A Day show is about Chapel Hill tonight. And I then I remember that Branch's Bookstore, this awesome independent bookstore, is featured on that show: they'd just taped it when I did my reading there for The Truth About Forever in June. So I turn it on at 9:40, just in time to catch Kate Branch telling Rachel Rae about how there are so many great local writers. And then they cut to: a table FULL of my books. For about a millisecond. But still: I freaked. Shrieked! Kate had said they might have gotten a shot of my books, but I had no idea it really happened. SO EXCITING! I am nationally exposed! (If only for about five seconds.) Okay: my night is made.

Come to think of it, though, it was already good. I had good friends over, fried chicken for dinner AND watched my new Best of Jimmy Fallon DVD. Plus, it might snow tomorrow, and I have a this week's O.C. on my Tivo yet to enjoy. Yes!

Still. The TV thing, all five seconds of it, was still pretty good.

have a great weekend everyone!