The day the music died

My headphones broke today. No sound out of the left. Right in the middle of my bike ride, too. I had no idea how dependent I was on music. This made the rest of my bike trip so boring that I had to cut it short. Who wants to bike-ride and listen to things like "birds" and "the wind?" Not me. How can I contemplate the genius of my favorite musical artists while coasting along the river when I'm not even listening to them? Hint: I can't.

It's for the better, really. I needed a new pair. I was beginning to think that, because of the silver color of the now defunct phones, people thought I was wearing dangling earrings. This, coupled with my propensity to have longer-than-normal hair, has made me become quite paranoid of looking like a woman from afar. Not that I have anything against women. I quite enjoy them. It's simply that I don't want to be mistaken for one.

Mind you, I prefer the headphones that you can stick in your ear, the "bud," I believe they call them. I don't know why I prefer these to the more traditional outer-ear headphones. I guess because, with the buds, it feels like I'm physically sticking music in my ears. However, despite my preference, I am not able to use the normal, just stick-n-go headphones a la Apple's iPod; the phones just fall out. I guess my ear-holes are just too big, a fact which I'm truly bitter about, deep down. How can this mold work for so many people and not me? I'm forced to ask myself, "Am I a freak?" The part of me that is somehow able to be sympathetic towards myself says, "Of course not." The other, more logical part of me says, quite matter-of-factly, "In this instance, and possibly many others, yes." So, coming to terms with my differences, I've become a fan of the around-the-ear brace attached to the bud that so many manufacturers now offer for us big ear-hole types.

So now the iPod is now somewhat out of commission. Of course, I'm relieved that it was the $15 headphones and not the $300 iPod that went on the fritz. But, despite the short life of these silver-plated, womanesque headphones, they've been there for me when I needed them: countless bike-rides along the river, road trips, plane trips, sleepless nights, walks to class, dinners alone, weddings, trips to the bathroom. I can't begin to fathom how many times great artists like Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Ace of Base passed through those tiny, tiny speakers. Headphones, may you rest in haywire electronics heaven from now until eternity, along side exhausted cell phones, spent VCRs, and that friend's Nintendo controller I broke like 15 years ago. You will be missed.

Tags: headphones

Yeah, that's right. I just tagged this with "headphones." And yeah, I think that someone might search that term. And when they do, I'll be laughing all the way to the bank. The bank of web-traffic. Cha-click!