Of Tunes and Tribulations

Simply put, that is what my life has consisted of in the past few days - nay, weeks. The tunes were mine, the tribulations shared.
Let's review, shall we?

On the side of Tribulations:
1. Emblem fell and hurt her wrist - terribly bad - on an errand for her job. Then she fell again today. Poor Nemma - she's almost done with her job, so she has to get work done, but she's in a lot of pain. Cheer her up, people. NOW. *Patented glare*

2. Mum might need Chemotherapy - as opposed to the radiation + harmones treatment her doctor had espoused before. It depends on if they find genetic markers for breast cancer while doing their tests. She's recovering nicely from surgery, but as of now faces at least five years of hormone pills and six weeks of radiation, or 13 weeks of chemo if she's not lucky.

Oh, and, ummm, genetic markers? Not so good for the Mandrake either.

3. A friend of a friend - let's call her Ronron, shall we? - has been in a progressively more dangerous relationship for a while now, and is making her first overtures for help to my own friend. It's at that stage where Ronron is scared, but not enough to make that leap and leave the ^#&@#&&I$)@$@!.

4. My credit card information was stolen, or so my bank called and informed me today. Luckily my bank stopped the identity thief before any purchases were made, and have taken steps to re-secure my account. Joy.


Meanwhile, on the side of Tunes:
1. A large part of my free time this week has been taken up moving my Apple encoded mp3s from 1999-2003 off of my Blue iMac and onto my beloved Thinkpad. All 1200+ of them. This involves the following steps per 120 MB of songs: (skip below if not in an extreme state of ennui)
A. Download iTunes 1.1 for Mac OS 8.6 (do not laugh - do n- DO NOT- Screw you.)
B. Download patch for installer and application to make both work right. Install iTunes and patch.
C. Convert a folder of songs using iTunes 1.1.
Note: before I freed up more than 500 MB of space, I had to go about deleting the pre-converted versions as my machine chugged along.
D. Copy 120 MB worth of converted songs onto flash drive. Wait at least twenty minutes.
E. Trash Flash Drive, plug into PC.
F. Copy songs from Flash into my iTunes Music folder called, appropriately, "new".
G. Arrange the songs in my iTunes Music folder - remove unnecessary FINDER and other Apple-generated files, move into already existing artist folders, create new artist folders, etc.
H. Open up my lovely new version of iTunes on my PC. Add files (or folders) to library as needed.
I. Rename songs, plug in artists, put in album names, fill out genre field (if I'm feeling particularly OCD).
J. Repeat steps C through I until I DIE.

2. For Shrove Tuesday (o Martes Glotona, si prefieres), I joined my two friends for fun at Bourbon St. bar. Live music from an okay band. My friends are now dubbed Beth Bacardi and Xan Malibu. No reason, just because they needed secret agen-I mean, barfly names.

3. On Ash Wednesday, our organist did not show up at church for the night service. So I stepped up and plucked out a one-handed tune. First hymn: three flats. Second hymn: four flats. Third hymn: Sigh: five flats. What the-who really needs to put in a G flat? Seriously? I know, I know. Fourth & fifth hymns: thank gosh, only two sharps. At least I still got ashes.

4. Looking at my iTunes list, here is a sample of my eclectic tastes: 10 songs, chosen in alphabetical order from the mid-Ms, have the following artists all in a row:
Counting Crows
Cabas
Queens of the Stone Age
Godsmack
Beethoven
Chisel
Shakira
Glamma Kid
Sweetwater
Rokia Traore

And another set of 10 in the Cs, starting from the first C song I have:
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ludacris
State Radio
Patty Griffin
Ensembe Huseyin Turkmenler - Belly Dance
The Mamas & the Papas
Shani
Enigma
Garbage
Fabolous

Wow.

Momentary Soundtrack: "Motherless Child" by Sweetwater.
Quote Trapped in My Head: "Sí, sí, sí que este amor es tan profundo // que tú eres mi consentida // y que lo sepa todo el mundo..." - from "Fruta Fresca" by Carlos Vives, a song that I danced to ages ago, at school.
What I Learned Today: The lyrics to "Volare" by the Gipsy Kings.