Opening the Box

So I'm a little slow on the up-take.

I see blockbuster summer movies at least 3-4 weeks late, I joined the Gossip Girl phenomenon in season two, and I just discovered Pandora this week.

My iPod has been acting up since spilling coffee on it several months ago and on Tuesday, after about 4 rounds of the iPod frownie face alerting me to seek support, the device turned on. But my victory was neither sweet nor long-lived. My battery was dead.

For you Blogtari "followers" (yes, I can speak Twitter although I do not participate. I'm not THAT slow), you know that my general office area is quite loud, and that headphones are a must for powerpoint formatting, spreadsheet calculating, or any other concentrated sales task. So the fact that my iPod battery was dead caused some mild panic.

Since living DVR-free for the last 2 months, I’ve taken to watching TV online, and figured I could do the same with music. Hey, if the Aussie-douche can find Australian dance hits online, I too can find some Jamie Foxx-free tunes.

I blindly typed "internet radio" into google, and found Pandora. DUH! Pandora immediately prompted me to enter the name of a band or song that I liked, and instantly created me a station. Rad.

I spent the rest of the afternoon entering bands into the site and heard some cool stuff. I felt very hip. I was listening to obscure music. Look at me go.

I've never been a real music-y person. I don't like to talk about music, I don't go to shows, and I don't really feel comfortable with the whole thing. I think this is largely due to my formative years spent with some very music-y people who did not allow me to form my own opinion about the grunge hits of the day.

I've always been intimidated by music, as if liking that Miley Cyrus song would out me as the closet loser I've always known myself to be. But then I realized, everyone likes that Miley Cyrus song. And everyone loves Womanizer. And although my husband really hates that Girlfriend song by Avril Lavigne that I could listen to on repeat 1000 times, deep down inside, it makes him dance in his seat.

Even though I realize that certain "lame" songs that I like are OK, I still tried to trick Pandora into thinking I was way cooler than I am. And my entire radio station sounds the same. Fast-paced, whiney, emo rock.

Today is Friday of the longest short week ever, it is raining, and I am pooped. My standard Pandora tunes are not doing a thing to boost my mood. So I decided to let my guard down, and add a little flava to my station straight from my iPod's "lady rock" playlist. I added Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.

Pandora now hates me. All morning it has been playing Leona Lewis and KT Tunstall and all sorts of other adult contemporary garbage sold at Starbucks. The coolness of the past week is now washed away, and my greatest fear is realized. My love of "The Sweet Escape" has come back to haunt me, as I always knew it would.