My what a long day this has been. First off I had a little too much wine last night. Who the hell was pouring? Me? Ahh, that explains the lack of an empty glass (not a Pete Townshend reference). I’m going to take this one easy tonight. No strain. Listening to a download of Hall and Oates ‘Rich Girl’ which was preceded by Elton singing ‘Empty Garden’ his tribute/eulogy for John Lennon, and before that Arcade Fire (who my sister thinks sounds beautiful and she’s right. Three degrees courtesy of Juan who turned me onto the Arcade Fire and I in turn gave a copy to my sister). So I’m downloading various tracks through Limewire.

I gave up after going to Tekserve last night, resigned to the fact that I would have to lose 6,788 tracks in order to exchange the iPod for a new one. I tried to download at home, some programs that work at work. But they wouldn’t work at home. I tried again when I got to work this morning and I was not very easy. (Guilty pleasure- I downloaded Reminiscing by the Little River Band). Work was slow and enabled me to play with the programs or at least attempt it. Actually I depended on Amiable Alan, a good guy I work with. Knows quite a bit about a lot of things that I know very little about which basically means, he makes me look like a dumb ass. But he’s such a nice guy I don’t feel uncomfortable being stupid around him. We also agree that only retards wear their shirt collars up. It’s so true.

He watched the desk this morning, giving me a chance to run to the Apple store in Soho. I raced over there thinking it was going to be easy, but Amiable Alan warned me that I would probably have to wait. I don’t want to wait in vain, so I made a reservation for 3:20 pm, counting on the fact that I was getting out of work at 3:00. I got back and thanked Amiable Alan profusely. He plays on my team too which is good to know. (More musical perversity, downloaded Pablo Cruise ‘Love is on the way’ as well as, and here is where it gets more twisted, the Moody Blues ‘Tuesday Afternoon’ as well as ‘Nights in White Satin’. Seriously, WTF?)

Amiable Alan left work earlier than I did, he was heading up to Vermont. (Just watched Bill’s blink and you miss it appearance on Law and Order) I was able to ask the substitute IT guy to help me out with the Senuti program that allows you to store on your computer songs and whatnot that are in your network or music player. I couldn’t figure it out but I knew Adam could. Amiable Alan gave a me a brief rundown on how to do it earlier in the day but with the condition my head was in this morning he might as well have been speaking Urdu. Adam hooked me up but it was slow going since I had my appointment at 3:20 and it was almost 40 minutes until then.

I got about 100 out of 6,788 tracks moved from the iPod to the Mac I use at work and at 3:00 I was out of there. (Now listening to Boz Scaggs, “Harbor Lights’ and ‘It’s Over. I didn’t know it then, but it’s very disco) I get to the Apple Store after a frantic walk down Prince Street and check in and wait. I am entirely stressed, like I would be if it was a pet, but it’s merely a cold soulless thing which I am hopefully exchanging for a new cold soulless thing, not a pet. Not at all. The music gives it soul I guess and when there’s no music, there’s no soul. (Mary Hopkins ‘Those Were The Days’ and ‘Goodbye’, I vaguely remember 1968. Hey, at least it’s not Melanie. Puh-leeze. There is a Beatle connection after all. Kate Bush should give her songs a go)

Eventually my name was called after about 30 minutes and I walked up to the iPod Genius Bar (that’s what they call ‘em) and met Chris who asked what the problem was. I explained about buying Bob Dylan’s ‘Modern Times’ and how it froze the iPod etc. She, being Chris, proceeded to make jokes about what the hell Bob could be smoking etc stuff like that. Being a music geek I promptly school her on Bob’s state of being as much as I know of it. After noticing that the iPod was unusually warm Chris makes a joke about how if it gets cold out I could use it to warm my hands. She’s attempting to bring some levity to my situation. She’s probably seen basket cases like me a few times a day, guys freaking out because their iPods are working properly. It probably resembles a high tech methadone clinic. (Now listening to Simon and Garfunkle ‘Celia’)

After fiddling about with the iPods she decides that it’s beyond immediate repair and gives me a new iPod, or maybe a reconditioned iPod. I thanked Chris and went back to the office to pick up my stuff and headed home with a new iPod in my pocket, empty with nothing to play on it. I got home and set about restocking it and so far have 6755 tracks scheduled to be on it. I will have to edit it down sure enough but not tonight, for I am toast.