5 posts tagged “ipod”

Also missing from my apartment:

iPod #1.
iPod #2.
A spare key.

This is fucking ridiculous.

Edited to Add:
Despite the fact that I try to keep them to a minimum on Vox, I'm not taking out the f-bombs.  Moments like these are why people need obscene language.  Sometimes "gosh darn it!" just doesn't cut it.

First of all, let me have a moment of sort of humor and say:  Poor Benjamin.  That iPod is having a worse year than I am.  And William H. Macy the iPod is just a babe; he's much too young to be out in the world alone.

I've decided that thieves are disgusting.  In fact, at the moment I'm mostly just appalled with people in general.  What consoles me is the exceptionally nice police department of Montevallo, who were kind and comforting on the phone and in person, and my parents, who had to console me yet again for something like this.  But it makes me sad that people exist who can simply take another person's things--including a key to an apartment, meaning they obviously intend to take more--and feel no remorse.  How?  I cannot fathom it.

Here's what else I cannot fathom:  this person obviously knows what I look like and/or what car I drive, since nobody's been trying to get in my apartment while I'm here.  You cannot know how tempted I am right now to drive away, park a street over, and watch to see what happens.  Hell, I'll set my webcam up to record anyone who might come in the door. 

I can't leave my apartment until my locks are changed, which means I'll at least be missing my church job tomorrow if not my library shift as well.  Fortunately I have the nice and handy parents, who'll come change my locks even if my landlady is unable to.  But I just... I'm so.  Very.  Angry.  And I literally feel ill.  I burst into tears as soon as I realized everything that was gone, and mostly I just want to curl up in my bed and cry some more.

I dare the person who stole my shit to come into this apartment right now.  I feel completely confident that I could smack them silly without even wrinkling my pajamas.  That's how much ass I'm prepared to kick right now.

I just needed to vent a little, but really I can't focus on anything long enough to say anything worthwhile on here.

A few minutes ago I noticed the Voicemail symbol on my phone.  I called, expecting to have a message from Brian.  Instead, I had a message from the Pelham Police Department.  I wasn't surprised and figured this was just a detective confirming that he'd gotten the police report I filled out a few days ago.

Instead, it's a detective calling to let me know that an iPod with my serial number has turned up in a pawn shop a few miles down the road from the Sonic where my stuff was stolen.  IT APPEARS THEY HAVE FOUND BENJAMIN!!!

That's basically all I know at the moment; as for the 20 or so CDs, FM transmitter, in-car charger, cigarette lighter, and Mazda book/registration/insurance card, I'm not sure if that stuff will be recovered or not.  They'll have to confirm that this is, in fact, my iPod, so I'll be speaking with the detective in charge of pawn shop stuff tomorrow.  Let's just hope that a)it's really mine, and b)the thousands of tracks of music haven't been wiped.

IT IS A GOOD DAY, I DECLARE.

It would be easy to sit down and feel sorry for myself.  But frankly, I've done enough of that today, and the truth is, I'm actually amazingly lucky.

Monday night two friends and I went to Sonic.  We had the windows down, but I didn't want any spillage in my car, so we decided instead to sit five feet away in the porch area.  Right beside my car!  And I, the always-responsible, never leaves a car unlocked gal, left my windows down.  A truck a few spots over from us was being the typical redneck, but seemed to be revving his extremely loud engine more than was necessary, especially considering it was a parked car.  We all looked at it, and commented on the driver's douchebaggyness.  We sighed in relief when he pulled away, and I watched him come around the other side of the building.  I looked right at the driver, and he at me.

This afternoon, not quite two days later, I reach to get a CD out of my glove compartment.  ...There are none in there?  Weird, I think, and feel annoyed with my dad for rearranging my car.  But then I think... wouldn't he have told me?  I call my mom, who knows nothing about this.  I'm starting to get freaked out, and I want to plug my phone into the in-car charger.  ...Except the in-car charger is not there.  There are CDs still sitting on my seat, but all but one have been removed from my glove compartment and both my in-car phone charger and FM transmitter for my iPod are gone.

It takes me about 20 minutes to finally remember what happened and piece together the windows down at Sonic, the unnecessary engine revving, and the driver's eye contact with me as he pulled away.  It takes me another 20 minutes to realize that the item I was counting on to make me feel better about losing 15-20 CDs, my iPod Ben, was in my center console.  And that's why my center console looked funny to me when I went looking for my phone charger:  because my iPod was not in it, where I remember leaving it.

It takes me a solid five more hours to realize they've taken my registration, car insurance info, warranty, and instruction manual for my car.

Needless to say, I freaked out.  It's more than losing an iPod to me.  First of all, my iPod's name is Ben, and I have a problem with humanizing inanimate objects.  Second of all, I'm a musician, and that iPod had so much important stuff on it.  Most of it I can get back with time, but not all.  And it's just offensive and hurtful.  And ironic.  I see the amazing good in people as the community of Prattville is unified in helping out families like mine who were affected by a monstrous tornado.  And then I see jackasses who had nothing better to do than steal shit out of a college student's car when she was sitting a few feet away like an oblivious idiot.

But here's the thing.  I wallowed for a while, and bless him, Brian had to listen to my cry and cry for the millionth time in the past two weeks.  But then, while I was at the hair appointment I refused to miss even after this crap, my mom mentioned something about an old man with no home insurance whose home was completely destroyed two-and-a-half weeks ago.  And I thought, it's some fucking technology.  It's replaceable.  You lost your iPod, not your home.  Now get over it.

And I did.  And I hesitate to even mention this next part, because it's going to make me sound like the most spoiled brat ever in existence.  But I need to express just how amazingly wonderful my family is and how lucky and blessed I am to have a family like mine.  I went to visit my grandmother tonight, who was upset to hear about what happened and retaliated the way loaded grandmothers do best:  a hug and some money.  A blank check she told me to give to my mother, actually, upon hearing that I was about to go meet my parents at Circuit City to replace my in-car charger (kind of a necessity, with the calls and driving I've been doing lately).  And I arrive at Circuit City to find my parents.  We get my charger, but before getting in line my dad cheerfully says, "Well, let's go get the iPod."  To which I firmly refuse; but my parents won't be denied when they have their mind made up like this.  They knew, and told me they knew, how important my music is to me, how important it is that I have something to keep track of it, study with, learn from, everything.  And they had decided I would have another iPod, and I would have another FM transmitter, and there was no room to argue.  And if that's not enough, they're not even mad about what happened.  My dad said, "You got suckered.  It wasn't your fault."  It was my fault, I thought and said.  And he did nothing but express his sympathy and eagerness to do this for me.

Let's ignore the fact that I'm spoiled for a moment.  And you'll just have to believe that I'm being honest when I say... my parents were so happy to help me.  In the midst of all this stress and bullshit they've been dealing with regarding our house and insurance and their work and everything, I think it just made them happy that when something bad happened to their daughter, they were able to help.  Maybe it's the fact that it was finally something they were able to fix themselves, right then and there, or maybe they're just incredibly kind and generous--I know that it's both.  But I think I'll go ahead and vote today a good day.

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)
Inspired by Stephanie.  

I COULDN'T RESIST--It was an excuse to bust out my iPod at 8:20 in the morning!

1.  Sparks (Coldplay)
2.  The Ballad of John and Yoko (John Lennon)
3.  Soldier of Love (Pearl Jam)
4.  A Bigger Mood (American Hi-Fi)
5.  Bennie and the Jets (Elton John)
6.  We Will Rock You (Queen)
7.  Out of My Mind (James Blunt)
8.  Kaleidoscope (instrumental track by my old guitar teacher)
9.  Mockingbird (Carly Simon and James Taylor)
10.  Lady Marmalade (All Saints)

I skipped such things as "Harpsichord Concerto in F Major by J.S. Bach!" and "Ricercare after the Credo from Mass for the Madonna by Girolamo Frescobaldi!" because THEY'RE NOT SONGS.  So I don't have to use them.  So there.

I love how after you do these things your mind sort of tries to make a connection between the songs and predict a forecast for your day.  "OMG I associate three of those songs with the same person I bet we're gonna get married today!!!"  Ok, maybe that's just me, but still.

I said, "Ben [my iPod], you know how to make things better.  Go, baby, go."  And I put Ben on Shuffle (skipping the songs I didn't particularly care to listen to... Ben's amazing, but like everyone else, he's not perfect), and I thought it would be interesting to document what happened (omitting the ones I've skipped and in numbered form to save space):

1. 8stops7 - "Question Everything"
2. Travis - "Funny Thing"
3. The Beatles - "I Feel Fine"
4. Bush - "Come Down"
5. Green Day - "Are We the Waiting"
6. Simon and Garfunkel - "The Times They Are A-Changin'"
7. The Spores - "Moon Shine Down"
8. Fuel - "Solace"
9. Coldplay - "Parachutes"
10. Ben Folds - "Evaporated (Live)"
11. Harvey Danger - "Moral Centralia (Demo)"  (forgot I had this... never listened to it before)
12. Chopin - Prelude No. 11 (I think in G# Major?)
13. Matchbox 20 - "Hang"
14. Trust Company - "Erased" (well, that was dumb)
15. [massive amounts of skipping]
16. Colin Hay - "Beautiful World"

And now I do believe I'll settle on this album for a while.