In The CD Player Updated

Check it out below on the right ....

I Love My Adopted Grannie

My Grandparents are all gone. But over the years I've had many "adopted" Grandparents. One of them is Tori's dear Grandmother Arlie out in Brandon, Iowa.

This is just a shout out to Gramma Arlie. She always picks me up and makes me feel good about myself. She is so unselfish even though she has been through as much or more than me in the last few years.

And everytime I talk to her she always says something like, "I just wish I could talk some sense into that Granddaughter of mine so she'd move back in with you and start over! You were/are the best thing that ever happened to her!"

I got an email from her yesterday that really made me love her all the more!

I love you Gramma Arlie!!!!

: )

Words of Wisdom

A dear friend sent me this the other day. She knows all the trials and tribulations in love that I've gone through the last two years, and she's going through similar upheavals in her life right now.

I really like these .... and think they are worth passing along. As Tori and I slowly sort out our feelings for each other, these little sayings certainly can and do apply!

Feel free to pass them along .........


1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you..

2. No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won't make you cry.

3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.



4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.

6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

8. Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.

9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time around.

12. Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you.

13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

REMEMBER: WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR A REASON.

Return with me now ... to the era of headphones!

I finally broke down and got an iPod. I resisted as long as I could. I'm weird like that sometimes.

Most of the time I embrace new technology ... the "latest thing" ..... and can't wait to try it out. I was that way when cd's became popular. I couldn't wait to start updating my vast catalog of lp's and cassette tapes to cd's instead!

But once in a while something will come along that I just don't want anything to do with. For reasons I can't really explain. Mp3's ..... iPods .... that sort of thing .... but my resistance finally crumbled. Crumbled at the hands of eBay .... and a damn good deal on a damn good used iPod!
LOL

So now I have to figure out what I want to put on it. It's a 20 gig ..... will hold around 5000 songs, so the manual says. Well .... since I've pared down my once massive cd collection in the last couple of years, I'm not even sure if I could fill the thing up with what I got!

And of course, I won't put everything on it. Some cd's only have 2 or 3 cuts that are worth repeated listens anyway. So I can do some big time culling .... that will probably be kinda fun.

Of course, all the King's X has already been ripped and downloaded. That was the first order of business. And in the last two or three days I've listened to all their songs on the iPod.

Which brings me around to the title of this post.

Remember when headphones were all the rage when it came to really digging into your music collection? Oh I'm talking back even before the Sony Walkman came along. Back when headphones were big, bulky affairs .... that covered half your head. You'd put them on and the world around you would disappear. Even before the music started. Then you'd put in your favorite tape or lp by Rush, or maybe Pink Floyd, or Zeppelin. Or if you were really adventurous, The White Album by the Beatles.

You'd dim the lights in the room, lay down on your back in the middle of the shag carpet, and just get lost in the music. Sucked in. Surrounded by swirling delays and cascading reverbs and feeling for all the world like you were right there on stage with the band.

It was the coolest thing.

I now understand the draw of the iPod. It's the exact same thing. A return to the era of headphones. In the last few days I've found myself getting lost all over again in the cd's I've been listening to for years. Only now I'm hearing everything!! Every little whispered lyric, every bounced delay, every layered multitrack guitar .... all the little nuances that get lost in a big living room on a big home stereo system .... or drowned out by honking horns and screeching tires while in the car.

Wow ..... it is so freakin' cool!

I haven't listened to music in headphones in years! I listened to "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska" by King's X yesterday and just fell in love all over again with that record! Heard things I had never heard before. Amazing. It's like the music has taken on a whole new dimension for me.
I have barely taken the ear buds out in the last 4 days. Just to work and sleep! LOL

Like all new trends or fads, I'm sure the fascination will fade in time and my iPod will become just another part of my day to day life that I take for granted. But for now I'm indulging in some long-lost musical discoveries. All over again.

It's really made me appreciate more the music I already loved!

How cool is that?

Why did I wait so long?

Gotta go listen to Jelly Jam II now .......... ;-)