More outdoor dancing adventures, and a new member of my gadget family...

Hello to you ALL! I'm happy to be back with you again, as we navigate our way through a warm and humid July. I had a dance performance over the weekend, plus I got a new iPod, and we went to Mass as a family. I call that a fantastic weekend, right there! So, why don't we settle in and compare weekend notes...

I made a summer version of my chatting graphic!! :0 Do you like?

Saturday my troupe was dancing at a local artisan's market, and so off we trooped in our hot pink coverups onto the subway. I don't think I've ever posted a picture of my coverup, but it literally is a giant, eye-searingly pink mumu with super long bell sleeves. And while I feel conspicuous wearing it out in public if I'm going alone to a gig, I never do when we are together as a group.

"What are YOU looking at?!"

I mean, they're the ones not part of the hot pink dancing goodness, they're missing out. Pshaw.

This of course does not necessarily *translate* to our gawking and incredulous fellow subway riders:

"Ok. I'm going to ask."

That's always how the conversation is initiated, 100% of the time. This person has obviously been debating whether or not to approach us for the past several minutes, and may have been dared by their friends to do so. This happened *4 times* on Saturday:

"Are you guys...[fill in the blank with one of an assortment of eclectic groups]?"

Last month, someone asked us if we were psychics. Because psychics travel in packs and often wear loudly adorned caftans? I'm not certain, but the guesses are always interesting. This weekend we got:

"...Wiccans?"

Well. That was a new one. I'm not certain that Wiccans wear such a vast quantity of hot pink either, but it's not like a I know a heck of a lot about Wiccan fashion. We quickly assured our questioner that we were dancers, not Wiccans. I suppose one could be both, but that does not apply here. :0

"Oh."

*another blatantly sizing up gaze*

"What...KIND of dance do you do?"

I think that in our part of the world, when someone says the word "dancer," the other person pictures hair buns and black leotards, not fuchsia mumus and Saidi canes, which we were also carrying.

"Middle Eastern."

"Oh."

They usually just look somewhat confused at this point, and we quickly sidle away.

Upon our arrival at the venue, we were grateful to feel the much reduced temperature from our last outdoor foray. There was a cool breeze coming off the water, and life was grand. Until we started dancing, that is.

I mean, everything was fine, and whereas audience members were paltry before we got there, a crowd gathered to watch us dance, which was lovely. But what happened is that once dancing, I started to SWEAT, even despite the milder weather. And sweat running into my eyes brings on the allergy situation. Apparently my eyes are already all sensitive due to seasonal allergies, and so when I get sweat in them, along with the inevitable sunscreen remnants, my eyes begin to twitch and tear. I swiped at them as best I could whenever my back was to the audience, but that only endeavored to make it WORSE. So, that was unfortunate.

#NotAGoodLook ;-)

In terms of actual dancing though, I was really happy. Everything went great, including my last minute improvised solo. We had a fantastic audience, and it was easy to feed off their energy. I was super pleased.

And speaking of dancing and music, I have a new member of the family to announce.

*drum roll*

A few weeks ago, I lost my beloved iPod, Cecilia. Let us mourn her with a moment of silence.

*sniffle*

I rely heavily on having a separate mp3 player for dance music. I don't want to put it on my phone for various reasons I won't bore you with. A friend gave me her old iPod, which I am very grateful for. She is hot pink (!), fantastic, and we've named her Kateri.

*heart!*

I have all of my dance, workout and seasonal playlists on her, and I am just the happiest camper that I could possibly be. Now I am excitedly planning my solo playlist for the upcoming art festival and feeling pleased as punch.

Saturday evening, after the dancing frivolity was done, all four of us attended a vigil Mass together. Often, it's just me and the kids, so it's extra special when Mike comes with us. The church was warm from the heat, but it mattered not. The Mass was lovely. We are soldiering happily on during summer Ordinary Time.

How was YOUR weekend, dear reader? Are you praying the St. Anne novena? It started Sunday, but there's still plenty of time to join in!

A tech question (unusual, coming from me): Is the iPod dying off?

Happy Wednesday everyone! I often do book reviews or talk about Catholic products/themes on Wednesdays, but this week I didn't have any of those things ready to go. Instead, I've been thinking about the Apple event yesterday, and how this all affects me in my quiet Catholic librarian sphere. I certainly use a lot of technology, especially at work, but I'm not what I could call a "tech person," really. I'm often way behind the current trends with regards to my personal electronic devices, although I usually come around. :) I'm just very selective about what I buy, wanting to be sure that I'll use and enjoy it.

Besides a laptop that I acquired when I started law school, my very first electronic device was the original iPod Shuffle. The one that looked like a pack of gum. :0 To this day, an iPod (I now own a 7th generation iPod Nano) is the only Apple device that I own. But I was hooked immediately on the convenience and versatility of an MP3 player. I'm from the mix tape generation, so you see what we're working with here. ;-) I got started on iTunes, and the rest of my music and podcast life is history. I'll come back to this in a second.

Besides my iPod Nano, we have a family Nook tablet (which I hate, but that I acquired used and very cheaply) that introduced me to the beauty of quick access to information. Not having to wait to boot up the desktop to post something to Twitter, or look up the title of something? Brilliant! I also have a Kindle e-Reader, which I absolutely love and adore. I was resistant to getting a smartphone for a LONG TIME, but life with a Qwerty keypad gets old quickly in our text message centered world. And text messages are just so imperative for us telephone-conversation-hating introverts, are they not? :0 I also wanted to change providers, because I was paying far too much simply for a call plan that I barely used and 500 monthly text messages. I moved over to Republic Wireless, and bought a Moto G smartphone.

Well. I love it. :0 I mean...I can't even imagine the way I used to live without this thing. I didn't consciously choose an Android device over an iPhone, but this was one of only two phones available if you wanted to go with Republic, so that's what I did. And it was the right decision, I'm saving a ton of money and I love the phone, so it's a win/win. But there are certainly disadvantages to not having an iPhone in our now Apple-centered world of small electronic devices.

And this is where we circle back to my beloved iPod. I'm a dancer, I have a lot of music. And I need to be able to play it easily at various venues for performances, which have so far all been iPod docks. I also download a lot of podcasts. I ADORE Catholic podcasts, I subscribe to eight of them, plus five secular ones. I listen to them everyday while in the car or otherwise have some down time by myself. And so my iPod gets a lot of use.

But it seems to me that Apple is being very quiet about iPods lately, no? The iPod lineup hasn't gotten an update since 2012, and I read that the iPod Classic has flat out been discontinued. The iPod Touch, Nano and Shuffle technically are still available, but their demise is being predicted by many (according to the Google search I did on this very topic :)). A lot of people aren't investing in a separate MP3 player anymore when they can use their phone or tablet to store and listen to their music.

For me, this is problematic, mostly because I don't have an iPhone. My music is all in iTunes, and I don't know how to get that onto my very non-Apple phone. Plus, it seems to be that this would take up a lot of space, and I don't have the capability to play it in my car or for dance events (that I know of). With regard to my car, we're talkin' serious old school here, people. I have a 2000 Honda Civic. This thing doesn't even have an auxiliary input. :0 I use an *fm transmitter* with an adapter since my Nano has the new lightning connection.  Hey, the car still runs like a top, I'm not ready to get rid of my baby yet. :)

Sooooooo...I still love my iPod. It's nearly 2 years old and is starting to misbehave occasionally, so I was thinking of replacing it. But with what? I could get another Nano. But should I? Is this going to be usurped by some as-yet-unknown new device? Or am I going to have to figure out a solution for my phone?

All thoughts are very welcome in the comments. :) And if you haven't read the comments from yesterday's post about getting more involved in our home parishes, please do! Some excellent fodder in there to think about.

*photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/devos/74096598

Oh John Paul...

"Good morning, Apple customer service, Dedrick speaking, how are you today?"

I don't know what it is about the customer service people I'm talking to this week, but they all have really interesting names.

"I'm good."

"Good to hear."

He verifies some personal identification information, including the serial number of my iPod, which is unfortunately etched in minute script on the device. This is NOT making me feel better following my traumatic eye doctor visit; I actually had to go get my new glasses in order to read it! *feels depressed* Next thing you know, I'm going to be one of those little old lady librarians who wears her hair in a bun and peers over her glasses at you.

"So how can I help you?"

"Well, I have a new 7th generation iPod Nano, and I'm concerned about the battery life. I'm not even getting 2 hours of power from it, and I'm only listening to music and podcasts, not using any of the video or Bluetooth features. That just doesn't seem normal."

"Oh no, Ma'am."

Ugh, I'm a "Ma'am" now.

"Let's go through the settings and see if we can identify anything."

We do, but we don't. Ha!

"Ok, the next thing we can try is to reset the iPod to factory settings and then reinstall the latest software. That *should* help the battery life. If it doesn't, then we'll know that the problem lies within the iPod itself."

Sounds fabulous to me. He walks me through resetting John Paul (which always sounded a little scary to me since it takes all the content off the device, but we put it back on) and tells me to keep an eye on him. If the battery continues to drain as quickly as it has been, call them back and they'll take it from there.

Happy day. I just took John Paul on my walk and I can already see a difference. Before, even that 20 minute voyage would result in a quarter of the battery life draining. Now, it was still fully charged upon arrival back at my office.

*happy sigh*

I have to admit, I'm regretting a bit not looking into getting a refurbished iPod Classic. Those have the old click wheels (how I miss thee! I HATE touch screens, which I know makes me a bit of a freak), have gigantic capacity, and are simply designed to play your music and podcasts, all with the old 30 pin system such that I wouldn't have needed that silly adapter. However, the new iPod Classics cost about $100 more than the Nanos, so they're not cheap. I *could* have looked into a refurbished or used one, like I mentioned, but who knows if I wouldn't have had problems with that as well. As long as John Paul behaves from here on out, I'll be happy.

I guess I expected this brand new iPod Nano to be much like my old one (a 3rd generation model) except with more capacity. It's not. It's much more newfangled (does using that word also make me sound old?!) and has features that I don't have any interest in using. It's biggest selling points are the 16GB capacity and its reasonable price.

We'll see. I'm feeling warmer toward him right now, let's hope this sticks.

Feet in my kidneys - a tale of my night

Today is my anniversary. :) Unfortunately, it's coming at the expense of a miserable stretch with Anne. I will say that yesterday evening was great - she was totally back to normal. We played, we read books, we enjoyed her company. Then she went to bed.

She was up for the first time (you know that's a bad omen when in relation to sleep, a parent uses the phrase "when she woke for the *first* time...") just as I shut my eyes around 10:30 pm. Anne has always had that knack. It doesn't matter that she is not in our room. She apparently has a radar that goes off when mom's eyelids close.

Mike goes in. Finds that Anne has wet through her sleeper. He changes her and strips her crib sheet. Gets her back down. All is well.

For 20 minutes. Then she's awake again. *sighs*

I go in, and I'm in there for what feels like an eternity. I attempted one put down, but as I was arranging her blankie on her, I could see that she was unfolding the cry face, so I just picked her up for another soothe. I was awake anyway, why prolong the agony?

By the time I got her down for good it was about 12:30 am. I get back in bed. I can't sleep.

Perhaps God is smiting me.

I fall asleep about 1 am. Anne is up again at 2:30 am. Then she's up again at 4:30 am. Then she's up for the day at 5 am.

I tried bringing her into bed with us, because I was so desperate, and due to said desperation, I forgot that this NEVER WORKS. The child has never wanted to sleep in our bed. She turns. She kicks. She sits up and exclaims "da da!" when she discovers that we are not alone in the bed. As you might imagine, it went poorly.

All told, I got about 3-4 hours of sleep last night. This does not make for a happy Tiffany. But you know how it goes. Nights that epically bad usually do not repeat themselves the very next night. Usually.

In other depressing news, my new iPod Nano is being insubordinate. Mike got him for me for Christmas because my old iPod (Max) was at full capacity. Plus, I've had him for years and he would frequently freeze up on me while playing. That would terrify me with regard to dance performances in which you simply bring your own iPod and have to play it on whatever dock happens to be at the venue. If the iPod is frozen, no music = no dancey.

My brand new iPod Nano is green, and I've named him John Paul. He's quite adorable. I wasn't sure what to think of his touch screen at first, but I'm getting used to it. He has many features that are far superior to Max, and has double the capacity. I do love him. Except that this newest model of iPods (and apparently iPhones as well, though I don't have one of those) has a new output feature. Instead of the large "plug-in area" if you will, that we all use to connect our iPods to our computers, our iPod docks, etc. the new generation now sports this much smaller output that I think is called a "lightning plug." Or something like that. The old plug is called "30 pin" if I'm not mistaken. What this means is that John Paul will not work with ANY of my equipment without an adapter. Which costs **$40** from Apple.

$40!!

The reviews for the adapters on Amazon are positively scathing, with livid people complaining about Apple robbing them blind. I thought I was rising above the nastiness by searching online and finding a much cheaper generic model somewhere else. I ordered it. It came in yesterday.

Right, it doesn't work.

*insert appalling swear word of your choice here*

I mean, it fits into my iPod, and then it fits into the old plug system, but my accessories (my dock and FM transmitter in my car) do not subsequently play my music and podcasts. And I NEED this thing to play with ANY dock for my dancing. I can't even return this cheap adapter because it would cost me more in postage to do so than to just throw it in the garbage.

Let my experience be a lesson to you, dear reader. Generic adapters for the new Apple devices = NO NO.

With much humility, I just went to Amazon and ordered the $40 real Apple adapter. I'm feeling punchy about it, but from what I'm reading this will in fact work to output my audio. I had a little credit from Amazon coming, so it cost me about $20, but I'm still rather pinchy faced about the whole thing.

At this point, as long as it works, I'll hold my tongue. I should have it next week.

*nostrils flare*