Publisher's Note

by Lori Murphy

iPod. uPod?

I consider myself more than a little techie-capable. After all, I work in front of a computer everyday—surfing, chatting, typing. While I never learned to write a line of computer code or program my VCR, I have mastered TiVo. But an iPod just never interested me. It didn’t feel like the kind of thing a 45-year-old had to have. But, then I got one as a present!

My husband loves technology and gadgets. He still regrets giving me the electronic photo display frame. He says I don’t deserve it, just because one day I was running late, needed an empty photo card for my camera, grabbed the one from the frame and never looked back. That is probably why he ignored the iPod as a gift idea for so long. I am so happy he gave in. I know it isn’t the kind of thing I would have bought for myself. I thought iPods were ridiculous, something for the kids. After all, there’s always a radio or CD player nearby.

Trust me. A radio is no match for the shuffle feature on an iPod filled with nothing but songs you love!

My iPod is a soundtrack for my life. That may be a grandiose statement, but that is how it feels when I drown out everything in favor of Gnarles Barkley singing “Crazy.” My desire to build the perfect playlist has taken me to the iTunes store, where I can search endless options to suit my mood. It is akin to building my own radio station. This tiny boom box plays along to laundry, exercise, cooking, working—you name it. I turn it up loud and sing off-key, particularly when I’m wearing my earphones. When there are no witnesses, I pop the iPod into the special speaker system he included with the gift. Over the top. It reminds me of the days when we would burn cassette tapes of all of our favorite songs. In fact, I can remember holding the microphone for the cassette recorder up to the speaker capturing a song off the radio. This is kinda’ like that—but with much better sound quality!

The crazy thing is that I don’t know many adults with iPods, or many kids without them. We have totally missed the boat on this idea. We need them more than our kids do. Our favorite music is harder to find on the dial! It isn’t often you turn on the radio and hear Etta James belting out “At Last,” but it can have quite a positive impact on road rage. I might be a late iPod bloomer, but talk about sold on the concept!

ps: There are 150 songs on iTunes with “Crazy” in the title.
So far, I have downloaded seven of them! Happy summering! : )