iTunes is CRACK

And I am an iTunes crackhead. It is shameful to admit, and makes me feel awful, but it's the damn straight truth.

I feel the way I imagine certain friends of mine must have felt a few years back, when they discovered The Sims and spent every waking moment in front of their comupters playing God. I expect there was a similar feeling of anxiety - I must step AWAY from the computer - and a similar surrender - well, maybe just for a minute longer...I can't stop. I simply have to keep looking....clicking...reading...building...

Really, the iPods came at a perfect time for us, here at Chez Crazy-Sports-Fans-Who-Lost-Their-Free-ESPN. Sure, the ProBowl was on today, but I didn't feel like napping. Give me an NBA All-Star game or All-Star week in baseball anyday. Instead of zoning out watching sports, or trolling the aisles at Target (we did that yesterday), I spent most of the day farting around on iTunes. Today was Journey Back to the Early 90's Day, a time when I was a geeky girl who spent all her time reading and taping songs off the radio. I'd forgotten about "Girlfriend", and "Seether", and who could forget Evan freaking Dando? I had such a crush on that man.

I really enjoyed poking around on there, and finding things I hadn't listened to in almost fifteen years. It was like running in to very old and comforting friends. I was such an outcast as a teenager, and music was about the only thing besides books that I could enjoy without having to associate with the tossers I was forced to spend most of my time with at school.

I have also decided that the Brits have cornered the market on curse words and slang.

I didn't buy a lot of the stuff I tracked down today, but I did buy a few old gems. That's the one thing I am proud of...I might spend hours on my computer creating playlists and reading album reviews, but I've kept the spending at a somewhat sane level. And, I have come to realize that there is a LOT of music out there that I never really listened to all that much in my grunge-tainted youth, which I am so excited to discover for myself now, as I barrel towards 30. Like Sonic Youth, or The Jesus and Mary Chain. I realized today that I only ever skimmed the surface of their respective abysses of genius as a teenager, and there is so much more for me to hear...

Sometimes I feel like I've read the last good book, or found the last good music...and then I stumble on books like White Oleander or find bands like The Shins - both of which I HIGHLY reccommend. Or you listen to a few tracks from Goo and realize that Thurston Moore's genius extends far beyond mind-blowing Carpenter covers.

I guess I probably sound a little naive, but each of us gets there in our own time, right? Better late than never, I reckon. I dated a music snob once, and all he ever did was make me feel stupid about everything I didn't know about music. I discovered a lot of great stuff while I was with him, don't get me wrong, but there was always so much pressure to like something and know about something. I rather enjoy learning at my own pace. My iTunes feels like a kindly old professor...maybe he looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman out of Almost Famous in my mind...but I think I'm finally starting to be okay with my sometimes cliche un-hipness.

I did name my iPod Sheila, after all.

Time to go finish my Bitchin Women playlist.