Musings on Music

Ah, music.  The inventor of the iPod should be sainted and given a special place in the afterlife.   You may think I'm over-exaggerating the role of music in my life, but I'm not.

Example.

I'm in the back office, whipping out a newsletter.  Mailing deadline - oh, yesterday would have been nice.   Someone is on the phone, calling patrons about books.  Someone else is having a conversation with the computer (really, it's not as insane as it sounds.  Maybe it's just a library thing, but it's quite normal.)   Another conversation is going on from Desk A (at the right side of the room)  to Desk B (at the left side of the room).  Chances are, there is a printer or copier running, interspersed with disastrous eating-of-paper sounds.
And then there's me.  Hunkered down in the corner, typing with papers carefully propped on the keyboard.  (I have the "low spot on the totem pole" desk, which has approximately enough room to place a stapler, kleenex and a bottle of water after you put the monitor and keyboard in position.  You can balance the papers on the kleenex instead, but they are hard to read there.  I digress, however.)

So, here is me, hunkered down in the corner, typing Memorial Donations, trying to make sure I match the correct donors to the correct designee, trying desperately to concentrate amidst the *noise of paper shredder*.

ARGH!!!

Reaching stealthily into the back pocket of my purse, I slip out the little silver lifeline - 120GB of music, video, and games (though I can't use the latter at the moment), all packed up into a cute little gizmo just smaller than my hand - the iPod classic.   Untangling the earphone cords, picking an album, soundtrack, or maybe just hitting the shuffle button - these actions take mere moments, and in the time it takes for the file I need on the computer to agree to open, I can slip into a world where it's just me, the computer, and Joe Walsh, or the cast of Les Miserables...

By the time the first song ends, things are lining up more easily, I'm no longer accidentally typing overheard call numbers into the description of the upcoming teen book club, and it's looking like I might make that "yesterday would be nice" deadline after all...

So, let me just leave you with this: