Obsession iConfessions

So let's just deal with the first bit, first.

I have a lot of music.  I have an iPod in which that music lives.  I love my iPod.  My iPod is dying.  Let me not get into the all-encompassing drama that is my Apple world at the moment.  Let me stick with the iPod.  A couple of months ago I posted, via Facebook, my confusion and deep distress that Apple is apparently no longer manufacturing iPods.

What. The. Fuzz.

A helpful friend when I exclaimed "what am I gonna do??' responded with something along the lines of "that's what a smart phone is for, Kate."

What. The. Fuzz... Again.

Here's the thing- I don't want to use my phone to listen to my music.  Don't get me wrong- I get it. I get the usefulness, the helpfulness, the super streamline-ed-ness of having my phone as the maestro of my mobile music experience.
But I don't want it.  When I'm walking  the dog, running, playing around town or grocery shopping, I want my tunes.  I don't want my phone.  Except for a few, I don't actually want people to be able to get to me all the time.  All. The. Time.  I want to lose myself in some jams, do my thing, and go away for a little while.  I don't want to be getting text messages, Facebook messages, emails, reminders, news updates, blah blah blah...  I deal with all of those things enough all day every day.  I just want my music.

Which brings me to this little jewel of an obsession.  iPod does still exist!  I'll take the Touch, 128GB (yes I do have that much music, you nay-sayers), in Gold or Space Gray.  And FREE ENGRAVING?!?! Yes Please!  What will mine say?

The Last Waltz.

Wow, that was a long lead-up to my first obsession.

Next up- the way sea air smells when the sun warms it.  We don't get a lot of sun in the winter months.  Sometimes (despite the fact that we are currently technically at about 18 hours a day of daylight hours) we don't get a lot sun in the summer months.  But when we do, the sea smells of salt and life and movement.  It smells like my childhood and maybe a little like the future.

These guys are dropping a new album and going on tour.  Who's got two thumbs and really wants to see a show?  This gal.

This guy is coming back this summer.  Which is exactly around the time my attention will be utterly torn away from my husband and my dog.  (There is this teenage girl inside of me that is screaming THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!)

Booze Traveler.  Not only do I love the premise, but Jack Maxwell is about as charming as travel-show hosts come (full disclosure- I have not googled him because I don't want to find out that he isn't actually as charming as he comes across.  A girl can dream, right?).  It's a fun take on what has become a stuff genre- the 'travel and partake in eating customs' becomes the 'travel and partake in the drinking customs- oh and then eat something to kill the hangover'.

An old school train to and from a mystical, ancient, place.  It's overkill, it's crazy, it's a lot of dough dropped on the rail- but it's happening.  In July we go to Peru.  In not enough time, we'll go from Lima to Cuzco to Machu Picchu and then do it all in reverse.  It will be a hectic trip- except for those four hours on that ridiculous train.

And finally, a shout out to an obsession I've had since the day I started traveling.  Lonely Planet comes in second to TS Eliot on my 'Biblical' List.  They have a website and an app.  But this is me.  And I love the books.  I love dragging them around the world with me; bookmarking, highlighting, dog-earing them; dropping them, propping them open, letting them fall to whatever page they will.  I have too many of them.  And there are new editions coming out all the time.

For now, that's enough.  And until next time...