Valentine's Day came early this year...

Last night, as we struggled in the door late from a tiring day on partially-awful roads visiting libraries tucked into cute little mountainside villages, we discovered a package that had been delivered, and was almost hidden on our little front porch.  "Why is there a diaper on the stairs?" my husband asked.  "Not a diaper.." I muttered, though he was right, the small plastic wrapped package did kind of resemble one, in the dark.. half buried in the snow.

Once inside, I gave him the package, since it was addressed to him, and it was promptly turned over to me.  My husband, he is very sweet, and excellent at shopping, but once a package comes in the mail, he absolutely cannot hold himself back from giving it to me immediately.  It's kind of funny; if he shops in the store, he's just fine about tucking something away until the holiday or birthday, but something about a package in the mail sparks the little kid in him.  And that's just fine with me.

I tore in, of course.  And yay!  It was a cover for my little square 3rd gen nano iPod that I love so much.

A little background on this: I lost my first iPod in our fire, along with my collection of cds and it was really tough on me.  Music has always meant a lot to me, and I wasn't sure how I'd get along without a soundtrack to my life.  One of the first things - in fact *the* first thing after clothing and basic toiletries - that I bought after the fire was a new iPod.  I'm a nano girl for several reasons, not the least of which is that since the thing is attached to me nearly all the time, I prefer small and lightweight to cumbersome and dragging my clothes down.  Never wanted a shuffle though - not enough control over what's playing for me.

Anyway, it happened that at the time, the square nano was on the market, a shape that was soon replaced with the original skinny rectangle.  It never really occurred to me that this would be a problem, until the clip broke on my iPod cover about six months ago.  I started looking for a new cover everywhere we went.  Best Buy.  Future Shop.  Various department and discount and gaming stores.  Nowhere could I find a single cover that would fit my iPod.  There were covers for the new nano touch, and those were square, but not right for my little Rosie.  (Oh yes, she's pink, and named Rosie.  The pink nano I lost in the fire was Rizzo, may she rest in peace).  There were tons of skinny rectangular models that seemed to mock my short, wide little iPod with their runway proportions and designer labels.  I wanted to complain that the stores were sizist but thought they might get the wrong idea.

I gave up, and resigned myself to finding inventive ways of carrying around my iPod.  This usually involved it being tucked somehow into my cleavage or bra.  We got very close over the last few months, Rosie and I. Then, it just became too much trouble.  She started getting ignored.  I started having actual ambient music in the house from the digital music channels.  Then, of course, I would yell at them for not playing enough of whatever it was I wanted to hear that day.  Yeah, those control issues again.

Now though, Rosie has armor again, with a clip *and* a lanyard, which is even better than her previous set of protective gear.  And she's around my neck right now, looking spiffy in her metallic purple gear.  I do have a great husband, and the music is back on.