Stephanie Cake

Last nite was rough. I'm not really feeling any better. Maybe a little more in control. Less spazzy. Its a start. Anyway, enough of that.

We are getting ditigal cable (yeah, I know, last ones on the block) which led to R thinking he needs to change some things about our big TV cabinet. He made it awhile back - its very cool. Its made reclaimed oak boards (all weathery and grey) and the doors are old shutters. But now he's decided to get a new TV stand altogether and move the oak giant upstairs. I don't agree but I'm too tired to fight.
So this morning, while he's out buying the new one, I've been excavating the old one. It has drawers full of CD's I'd rather not admit to owning and strange things like the unopened "Video Catnip: TV for Cats" VHS tape (where the hell did we get that???)

Back in a little nook and cranny behind the TV, I found my old Sony Walkman. This is the real deal. The original, mind you. I got it on my 11th or 12th birthday. 1984 or 1985. It was the best thing since sliced bread. I even used in college to listen to my old tapes when I needed to drown out the sound of my freshman year roomates playing REM and Stone Roses CDs at full blast on their stereo.

I remember playing it on long car trips. I was really into Madonna at one point and used to listen to True Blue over and over and over. 1986. It was where I first listened to the Clash and the Violent Femmes and the Sex Pistols. 1986/1987. When I was in love for the first time and listened to Rebel Yell (or maybe it was Vital Idol??) over and over because that was playing at the party where he first kissed me. 1987. I could go on and on. Ah, the nostalgia.

So I'm sitting here looking at this thing and I realize that Connor (and about 75% of the kids I teach @ PP every week) doesn't know anything before CDs. And even CDs are kind of getting old. The Walkman weighs a little less than a pound and measures 3.5 x 5.5 x 1.75 (not including the buttons that protrude off the side). It fit into big coat pockets and book bags ok. My iPod Nano is about the size of a business card and about the thickness of 4 quarters. It fits in my wallet.

I have almost 3 days of music on my iTunes. Its too early in the morning for me to do the math necessary to figure out how many cassette tapes that equals. But suffice it to say, it would be a lot. I can carry more than half my music on my iPod. I don't think I could have imagined that 22 years ago. That was a completely Jetsonian concept.

// posted by Stephanie Cake @ 2/17/2007 09:27:00 AM