The Unbearable Lightness of iTunes

Los Angeles, California

Cindy sent me a New York Times article entitled The Big Benefits of Small Talk. The point being that, like my father before me, I like to talk to strangers. I find in most circumstances, people are quite interesting, and I've had some fun and even enlightening conversations while swapping stories with strangers. Not to mention some good restaurant recommendations from locals when traveling.

Today, I had an interesting conversation with a Genius, or agent, from Apple. What led up to this was yesterday's experience of sitting down to my MacBook to create a new workout playlist on iTunes, and finding that all but one of my playlists had disappeared. For iTunes refugees like me, you might have already realized that the continued diminishment of iTunes in order to get you to pay a monthly subscription for the Spotify-competitive Apple Music has wreaked havoc on our iTunes libraries. Recently, Apple removed the iTunes app and moved our exiting libraries into Apple Music. And yesterday I discovered that I could only access a tiny slice of my rather large iTunes catalog. So, I worked out to an old playlist and, after attending to my monthly bills this morning, I sat down to address this rather scary issue.

We have all experienced the panic of finding photos, music, whathaveyou, missing from our computers or phones. But, Apple support has yet to let me down. Whoever is designing updates and making the decisions that caused this iTunes disappearance has disappointed me greatly, but the support people, the 'geniuses', they always seem to come through. The fix took an inordinate amount of time, both waiting for the agent to come on the line and the actual work we did together after allowing him access to my MacBook and then my phone. Before calling, I had tried to move my iTunes playlists into my MacBook but only succeeded in moving the abbreviated library into my iPhone, replacing the full one that had existed, just minutes before, in my phone.

My agent, Samik, traveled freely around my Music app and was finally able to find the full library and transport it into my iTunes folder now found in the Apple Music app. (Are you following this? Sheesh...) So, after that was finally fixed, I asked him to help me sync my phone so that the now-restored library would be reinstalled into it. I have a LOT of music, so it took a great deal of time to import. My agent, a rather soft-spoken man with an east-Indian accent, had commented once on a Radiohead song I had in my library. Oh, I like that song, he had said. An opening. So, while we were in silence waiting for the synching to finish, I ventured to ask him where he was located. He responded: I am in Canada.

May I ask which province?

He replied: Ontario.

There was another long pause before I said: So, you probably weren't too happy about that hockey thing.

He replied that the USA had deserved to win Olympic gold as they had played so well. Generous.

I shared that I really don't usually follow hockey, as baseball is my sport. And added: So, you probably weren't so happy about that Blue Jays thing.

And, he laughed.

We then swapped weather conditions (snow should be shortly gone where he was, temps in Los Angeles are in the low '80s ... Fahrenheit, I added.

The download was finally completed and I thanked him for his hourlong assistance in fixing my issue. He wished me a good day and we disconnected. I gave him a stellar review.

Addendum: After writing this post I discovered that the playlists he found and reinstalled were empty. No songs. So far I have spent a total of 5.5 hours on the phone with Apple (as well as a visit to my Apple store who informed me that Apple no longer 'supports' iTunes so they could do nothing. I finally reached a supervisor who basically offered me a few workarounds to reinstate at least some of my music. I anticipate that this will take a full 3-day weekend with nothing else going on except perhaps laundry. Aarrgghh...

A Lotta Dots

Los Angeles, California

Last year was a bit of a bummer. Ok, no, last year was on one hand a huge bummer. Both Joel and I had injuries and I lost a friend. Actually, the husband of a friend, but a friend nevertheless. As a result of our injuries, we didn't dance much. But on the other side of the bummer was some really good stuff. While I limped around Santa Fe last September when we traveled there to see A Prairie Home Companion at the wondrous Santa Fe Opera venue, we also, on that trip, discovered... Yahtzee!

We are game players. We play Double Twelve dominos a lot. Lynnette introduced me  to A Ticket to Ride, and we have played about six versions of it for several years. Some people I used to know introduced me to a fun card game called Shithead (and yes, I apologize for the vulgarity, but that is what it is called!). On planes, we play gin rummy. We play all of these. But when Joel and I went to Santa Fe, we taught ourselves to play Yahtzee.

Cindy had endeavored to teach me Yahtzee on a trip we took together to Carmel back in the early '90s. It was the only time we ever got high together, before she taught me how to play. She had provided the cannabis and it was strong. Not only did I lose that game, I came away with absolutely no idea of how to play Yahtzee. So, Joel and I started from scratch. And we really got into it.

When Lynnette came to stay after that trip, I asked her if she wanted to play Yahtzee, and she did. So, from September through January, I've been playing Yahtzee with Joel, Lynnette and even one game with Cindy. The one game thing is unique. When Lynnette and I play (Yahtzee, Dominos, Ticket to Ride, etc.) we play a lot of games! Back in the days of our early addiction to playing Ticket to Ride, we had sometimes stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, fueled by the mantra of: Let's play just one more.

We have gotten a lot more temperate on playing past our bedtimes, but we make up for that by starting early. Like, in the afternoon. And after a lot of games one evening, and after throwing the dice when it was her turn, Lynnette uttered the immortal words: When I see a lot of dots, I get excited...!!!

I am third and fourth generation American, via my mother's and father's families' emigration to the US. And I think Americans are crazy. We work too hard. We are hypervigilent about our health and how we eat. We don't value recreation and fun. Broad generalizations, yes. But generally true. At midlife, after a particularly heinous life-changing event, I knew instinctively that I needed to stop striving. I needed to unwind. I needed to embrace joy. Joy came from spending time and laughing with friends. Joy came from enjoying hamburgers. Joy lived in dancing. And, I think I discovered last year, in spite of the bummery part of it, that joy can come from learning a new game, and spending special time with my good friend who gets excited when she sees a lot of dots!