If you don’t have an iPod, you can still relate to this post. All you have to do, whenever you read the word “iPod,” is substitute the phrase “collection of recorded music in some other format, such as CD’s, vinyl, or heaven forbid, cassettes.” That’s a pretty long phrase to have to keep saying to yourself however, so you may want to go ahead and get an iPod or similar device. It’s totally your call.

Anyway, you and I have skeletons in our iPod closet.

I have over 2000 songs on my iPod, and I can actually hold up to about 10,000. That’s what the Apple people tell me, anyway. And my song collection is pretty eclectic – I have stuff from pretty much every decade since the 1920’s. Maybe even the 19-teens.

A lot of my music is there because I need it for my work as a school teacher. That’s another way of saying “I have a lot of dumb kids songs on my iPod.” In the previous sentence, “dumb” refers to the songs, not the kids.

So if you were to look through my iPod and see some of the weird stuff in there, you might be tempted to think I’m not very cool. But I am, though. I have a lot of pretty new cool stuff on there. Some of the pretty new cool stuff comes from being kind of cool myself, and some of it comes from having a cool daughter who helps me find music, and some of it comes from having cool friends who know a lot about music. If you’re going to have good music on your iPod (here’s one of those places where you’ll need to substitute that phrase we talked about earlier), you really need to make sure your circle of friends includes people who know about music you don’t know about, to keep your collection fresh.

However – there are skeletons in my iPod closet. I’m talking about songs that 1) aren’t that cool, and 2) aren’t on the iPod because I need them for school, and 3) are on the iPod because there’s a small dorky part of my brain that likes those lame songs.

I’m not going to tell you what those songs are, because I don’t need you judging me. But you have them, too. Come on, admit it. You like songs that are just plain bad, horrible songs. Songs that make you want to minimize your window if someone walks by when you have iTunes open on your computer. Songs that make you want to rename your iPod with someone else’s name, so in case you accidentally leave it someplace people won’t find it and figure out it’s yours.

So all I’m trying say is – embrace your iPod skeletons. Embrace the dorky-song-lover within you. Just don’t tell anyone about those songs, especially me, because I’ll laugh at you. Happy listening.