So this is what all you kids have been listening to!

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember how my month went a year and a half ago. It started off on December 1, 2007 with me being rear ended (in the car I had only owned for 4 months) by someone going approximately 30 - 40 mph . She slammed into the back of my car so hard that it pushed me into the BMW in front of me. Her car was totaled, mine had approximately $9,000 worth of damage to it and the BMW had $10,000 worth of damage. I then had a major water leak at my house. My bill is still in dispute with the City of Atlanta water department 18 months later because they apparently only hire people who don't know how to fix billing problems despite tons of phone calls, emails, and faxes from both me and my landlord. I then had to drive the oddest rental car I've ever driven for 3 weeks while my car was in the shop. On December 14, 2007, I was rear ended for the second time in two weeks in the rental car on my way home from work by the head waitress of a pool hall who told me she hit me because the high heeled boots her boyfriend told her she shouldn't wear while driving to the pool hall slipped off her brake pedal. A few days later, I drove home from work planning to take a nice, long, hot shower and then make a big pot of spaghetti which I had been having a major hankering for all day long. Only I got home to find that the City of Atlanta really screwed up my account from my call to them about the water leak and turned my water off while I was at work and couldn't guarantee if or when they'd be back out that night to turn it back on (even though they acknowledged they were in error) so I called my mom and asked if I could come sleep on her sofa so I would at least be able to brush my teeth and take a shower. And I was totally pissed that I couldn't make spaghetti. On the way to her apartment (already wearing my yoga pants and tshirt I planned to sleep in), I stopped at a gas station to fill up the crazy rental car (which wasn't damaged enough to return to the rental place when I was rear ended by the pool hall waitress and her slippery boots) and the gas tank moved around randomly inside the car because it wasn't bolted in properly and I couldn't tell when the nozzle was in all the way. Gasoline came spewing out of the car straight towards my face so I jumped back and instead got drenched in gasoline from the waist down. So I told my mom when I arrived at her apartment that if I smelled like I had bathed in 87 octane gasoline, that was not at all her imagination. Then the water department guy called my cell phone at midnight and asked me if I had gone on vacation and left a faucet turned on in my house. Which, really? WTF? A few other odd things happened that month, but these are the only ones I can remember at the moment. Oh, I do remember one more thing. The girl who rear ended me showed up in court and decided to plead not guilty so we were re-scheduled to come back for a trial. A trial over a stupid car accident.

When I finally got my car back I discovered that the collision center had not taken care of getting my CD player repaired which I had reported to them as part of the damage from the accident. I hate listening to the radio - I only listen to CD's. My first mistake was listening to the guy at the repair shop who told me it would be easier for me to call the insurance company and set up that repair with them because they didn't repair audio systems and he'd have to take it somewhere else anyway. The insurance company argued and argued with me saying there is no way the accident damaged my CD player since there was no visible damage to the dashboard. I explained to them that my CD player had worked just fine until the exact moment their client plowed into the back of my car and pushed me into another car and demanded they pay for the repairs. They reluctantly agreed to pay for repairs. They referred me to a car stereo shop.

I ended up having my CD player "repaired" on five occasions. I was sick of dealing with the stupid insurance company and I knew I would never get them to agree to replace the system and I really don't have time to sit on the phone with them arguing about it. So a couple of weeks ago I decided to just go buy another one because I am trying to do my part to stimulate the economy even though I don't have the money to make spontaneous large purchases like this. Also, I had six CD's in the player and they were all jammed. They would not play. I could not eject them. And the thought of taking my car to the repair shop, waiting for 30 - 45 minutes for them to remove the stereo system, and then driving around with a gigantic hole in my dashboard and no music for another couple of weeks for the sixth time in 18 months made me crazy. And the thought of having to listen to the crap radio stations here in Atlanta for the rest of the time I own my car made me even crazier. (The radio worked fine - it was only the CD player which was testing my patience.)

I started looking online and could not find a basic stereo/CD player. I went to Best Buy and told them I wanted a very basic system - no IPod hook up, no MP3 hook up, no satellite radio, no blue tooth, etc. I just wanted a radio and multi-disc player. The salesman said, "yeah, good luck with that......they don't make stuff like that anymore." I explained that I am 40 years old and like to rock it old school and I told him that I didn't even have an IPod or MP3 player and that I didn't want one. He laughed at me, but he was very patient and kind and I didn't take it personally. He told me he resisted them when they first came out but eventually caved and bought one and how much he loves it. I asked him how long it took him to cave and he said, "it was a long time. At least 6 months after they came out." And I felt like an idiot because it took me closer to 6 years to even stand in a store and discuss them with anyone.

So I eventually did what any 40-year-old technology challenged person would do and said, "oh hell, help me join the year 2009 and tell me exactly what the heck I need and how to use it all because I am a stupid, stupid girl." I am paraphrasing. Obviously. Because I'm not really stupid. Only when it comes to audio or computer equipment. He told me step by step how to download music from my CD's onto a MP3 player. He told me how to hook the MP3 player into the stereo system. And less than 30 minutes later, I walked out with the tiniest and cutest red MP3 player thinking it was impossible that an object smaller than a credit card could possibly hold 300+ songs. Sadly, after all the time he took helping me, the store was out of stock on the stereo so he sent me to another location down in the hood (which honestly is not far from where I live) to buy the sytem. I then took it back to the original store last week and had it installed. Because puhlease. I have my limits on how much technology I'm willing to learn in a short period of time and I was not about to try and figure out how to install my own audio system. Which I discovered was a very wise choice since he had to take my entire dashboard apart - including all up under my steering wheel - to wire everything.

Y'all - why have I been resisting the whole MP3 thing for so long? This is one of the most awesome things ever!! I have to admit it took me a little time to figure out how to sync from my computer to my MP3 player since it didn't automatically choose some certain setting, but once I figured that out I downloaded to my heart's content. Now I just plug it into the front of my stereo and have all of my favorite (read: dorky) music at my fingertips without having a car full of loose CD's laying around, cases getting broken, etc. And if I ever get my trip to Brazil scheduled I will be listening to music instead of having to talk to the person next to me on the plane for the entire 20+ hours. Win-win the way I see it.

But I have one question for those of you who have been listening to MP3 players and IPods for years already:

Is there something wrong with the shape of my ears? I can't keep those earphones in my ears at all. If I move the slightest little bit they fall out. I see people jogging with them and they stay in their ears so please tell me: what is wrong with my ears? Is this just one more thing that is evidence of my weirdness?

P.S. Now I want spaghetti again.