I didn’t dare mess with the iPod for a day or so. It was working and that was all that mattered. Yet I knew deep within that I wanted to remove that offending music. If I were using relaxing music to take a nap or meditate, having some intrusive stuff suddenly interrupt my world would be a rather jarring, counterproductive experience.
I became aware that iTunes was still adding free, questionable songs into my playlist. I could delete them before plugging in the iPod, but there had to be a better way. I finally discovered a command somewhere to block iTunes from that activity and suddenly felt like I was brilliant! Deleting the songs I didn’t want from my playlist, however, didn’t make that original group of 11 vanish.
Using the search engine Google, I was directed to several helpful websites to explore, although it took me hours to wade through the most promising pages. I was reminded of the TV commercial about getting online insurance quotes, "So easy a caveman can do it." What came before cavemen? Dinosaurs with walnut-sized brains? I was beginning to think my head must be filled with primordial soup as I tried to process all the techno-savvy newsletters and forums.
Programs exist to enable consumers to delete music, but I wasn't inclined to add any additional stuff to this poor ol' computer's system. Eventually I read something that made actually made sense: there's a reset button right on the iPod itself. I vaguely remembered the pamphlet mentioning the then obscure notion of, "How to Restore."
I ended up spending several hours trying to do just that. Don't ask me why it took that long. I remember the computer locked up at one point. Meanwhile the iPod was busy recharging its battery again and didn't want to do anything else. When it was ready to be disconnected three hours later, I was too mentally fatigued to try it out. Especially after I glanced at the playlist and saw 11 unwanted songs still mocking me. Maybe if I played those songs often enough, I'd learn to at least tolerate them. The scoreboard stood at iTunes – 2, Roberta – 0.
Several days later I wanted to take a nap and listen to the soothing music I had downloaded. The ear-buds slipped in and ... no music. Complete silence. I trudged off to the computer with a heavy heart, knowing I had done something else incorrectly.
The familiar USB cable connected the iPod and I received a message that stated something to the effect that iTunes couldn't find the Synchronization Folder. Even I knew enough to recognize that wasn't a good sign. How could I have managed to snarl things up in so brief a time?
Looking all through the hard drive and anywhere else speculation led me, I found a folder that seemed like it was related to synchronization: the problem was I didn't know what to do with it once I located it.
When I returned to iTunes, it promptly informed me that it had detected that it was no longer the default program for the music and wanted to know if it could ‘pretty please’ be the favored program. Okay, that wasn’t the exact wording, but I was beginning to take things very personal. I forgave iTunes and told it, "Yes." That was all it wanted to know, suddenly becoming cooperative. We must have come to some sort of understanding and called an ‘iTruce’, because it revealed tabs that informed me what restoring the iPod would accomplish. It would delete everything; my two photos, the 11 songs haunting my iPod, and my now 27-song playlist. Pushing the buttons without hesitation, I watched my iPod regurgitate its contents into cyberspace. Then, like magic, my playlist flowed into the iPod. Even my own genre folders replaced the original iTunes standard. There they were: Meditation, New Age, Celtic and Native American. Best of all, I was actually going to be able to add future categories to organize my eclectic taste in music.
Now all I needed to do was get my photos back. Maybe it was exhaustion mixed with relief, but I couldn’t remember how I did it the first time. I successfully got one picture, but not the other. Hours passed as I deleted picture folders, copied pictures into new folders and tried everything to recapture those pictures. Was I really asking too much?
The pictures moved onto the iPod late in the afternoon of the 12th day. I don’t know how. I don’t even know if I’ll ever get any more to join them. The pictures are at least proof that if you allow a chimpanzee to sit at a typewriter long enough, he will write a novel.
I darkened the bedroom, slipped the ear-buds in and selected gentle music from a favored genre. A nap with my cat was long overdue and well deserved. I had made friends with my iPod and conquered iTunes with 5 days to spare before my birthday. My eyes closed in pure contentment. It lasted about a minute before my cat spotted the fascinating wires sticking out of my ears. Her golden eyes dilated as she stalked her prey. The gray and white Tabby forcibly yanked the ear-buds out and tried to chew the wires, thinking I had bought her a new toy. The cat and I happen to share the same birth date and she was thoroughly delighted I remembered to get her such a wonderful plaything. I guess there are just some things even iTunes can’t control.
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