You guys should be embarrassed

Listen up, people. I am sitting here, past the age of 50. OK, past the age of 55 even. I am too young for social security but old enough to stay inside when it's raining (unless I don't feel like it). I confessed openly to having no knowledge or experience with iPods. I didn't ask someone to do it for me, I asked for advice so I can learn to do it myself. I am stubborn and determined.

I eagerly awaited comments with hints and details from all of you who are younger than I am. I expected some great step-by-step directions and hints on what to do and what not to do. Everyone wrote that they depend on someone else to do it or they don't really understand what they are doing. Lori offered much help, but you guys didn't know that, did you? You just left me hanging here with an iPod and a confused expression.

So who finally gives me some directions? Someone who is new to my journal, as far as I know, and who has a few years on me, even. How embarrassing is that for you guys? Shame, shame!

I confess I spent at least 12 hours making this new toy my bitch. It came to me used - there were no directions and the friend who sent it to me had no words of wisdom. She had only uploaded one CD she owns. Well, that is nice if you own CDs, but buying music and movies have not been on my budget since I gave birth. That was in 1980.

So, I patiently sat down and had a talk with this thingie. It's hot pink, by the way. Not my first choice, but at least I can find it. I have to stick it in a drawer at night so I can sleep. It's bright. I pushed the buttons, twirled the wheel, and found games. I played solitaire to get my hands used to the wheel, much as we played solitaire on PCs years ago to learn to be adept with a mouse. Take that, iPod! That game has very tiny, tiny, cute little cards.

I downloaded software to get music. I found songs I like, and put them on a playlist. I transfered them over to iTunes, which I had also downloaded. I moved them onto the iPod. It wasn't a smooth learning curve, but at least I am not dependent on some 7-year-old down the street.

Nope. I am dependent on some 30 year old downthe street. He lives with his parents, and his dad works for Apple. The son, let's call him J, loves music. I ran into his mom when I was walking the dogs and she saw I had ear buds on. I explained that I had just gotten my very first iPod and had finally learned to put songs on. She told me her husband had recently started a second job at Apple. Who knew? She said she would talk to her son for me, as she knew he had a lot of music and my tastes were closer to his than hers. WAY closer.

She called me later that evening to tell me I was invited to search his playlist to see if i wanted to borrow any music. I jumped on that offer and ran down the street in the rain. Well, I walked. The foot isn't conducive to running quite yet. But I wanted to run, yes I did!

I was shown a monitor and keyboard and mouse, wireless, on an apple computer and saw just under 5000 songs to scan. !!!! I said, and started scrolling. I grabbed maybe 25-30 songs off that list. J put them on a disk for me, and I will doing the process to move them onto my iPod. Myself. All by myself. I have no experience with a mac, but I was shown how to navigate adequately for what I needed.

Meanwhile, the iPod will have at least 100 songs on it by tomorrow, just in time to hand it over to the Demonchild on Friday. She will hand me the classic iPod she doesn't use and I will get movie capability. Then I can move the songs I have onto the new iPod, and start all over. After that, I stretch my learning curve to include movies. I don't own any movies.

Wish me luck. I can't ask you guys for help on this one if you can't even do a song, can I? I also might want a couple of games beyond the original ones it comes with. I don't play computer games, so it will all be new to me. I am very excited!

Come on, people, it's not that hard. Don't let those gradeschoolers take over! If I can do it, you can do it too! I appreciate the sympathy I received from all of you, but I detected a hint of fear of the process from most of you. Y'all scurried for cover, didn't you?

Oh, I have to go now. I must learn to put on photos before I can let the child have this one.

Yes, the child and I do pretty much like the same music. Go figure.

Did you know that Traci Lords sings, too?