Today was one of those incredible Paris days. For most of the month of February the City of Light lived up to its grey reputation. The skies were heavy and we lived underneath a low ceiling almost all month. March has been more of the same except for a few exceptions and today was one of them. We had the added bonus of pouring rain yesterday so today's sun and air was extra fresh and sparkly.
Since I am from San Diego, a sunny day equates to a hot day so it is an added pleasure to be able to take brisk walk on a sunny day and not sweat through my clothes. I was even wearing my coat! I had an errand to do on the other side of Paris and since I had time, I decided to walk. Remember, I'm on that diet where I record calories in and calories out - walking all the way to the right bank where the cookware store I needed to visit is in the 2nd arrondissement represented over 5 miles. I also had a bit of cheating to make up for ( a brownie and red wine at a girl friend's last night - bad girl that I am).
I plugged myself into my ipod and took off. I set the ipod on random and found myself enjoying the surprise as each song began. It was refreshing not to know what was coming next, even though of course I had chosen everything on the thing. Remember back when we did not choose our own music? It used to be so exciting when a song you really liked came on the radio - somehow it sounded even better than off the album (remember those??) playing on your record player (and those??). I even recall calling my best friend and telling her to turn on the radio when a really good set happened to be playing. It was practically something to celebrate.
Now most of the world, particularly kids, listen to only stuff they have chosen themselves, at least most of the time. Where is the surprise? Remember the fun of tuning into your favorite DJ to see what new stuff he would mix up with the favorites. As far as I know, there are not DJ's choosing the music on the millions of ipods out there.
Think back to those good old days, driving along in your car, radio blaring and suddenly a song you love comes on, you never would have downloaded it onto your ipod because you had forgotten it existed but there it is, familiar and unexpected. A treat in the middle of the day. You crank up the volume to celebrate the moment.
It is one of those time when not having a choice is so much better.
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