say hello to Neil

neil is the name of my new zune. 

a few months ago dave (my beloved 80GB) had an accident. i'd been leaving him in my coat pocket for maximum easy access. we're best friends. we drive to school together, go on walks through the woods, dance around the kitchen and do the dishes, etc. so one night dave had been in my coat and we had friends over as we often do and something happened. my coat got moved. for all i know, i moved it. i don't remember. i wasn't thinking about it. 

the next morning, a saturday, i woke up, found my coat, and it wasn't until i took dave out of my pocket while in the car that i saw it... the crack that goes from the top left corner of his screen down to the bottom right side. the crack that broke a third of his pixels. the crack that gave birth to the nasty leech that sleeps in his screen so that i can't see what i'm playing. i can't watch movies or tv shows.

this happened just before we went to japan... a 14 hour flight. of course i was upset. in fact, i barely held it together. on top of dave's accident, i've been very stressed. 

i've been a mess, basically.

turns out not only did dave suffer cosmetic damages, his battery got a good whack too. what used to play music for up to 6 hours, now only held a charge for about 20 minutes. i put a formal request to ryan to get a new zune for my birthday (which is in november, mind). i knew by then that this new zune would be named neil.

dave after david bowie. neil after neil hannon.

one night not too long ago, i had a dream that dave was all better. we were singing and dancing and he was healthy again (am i personifying him too much?). when i woke up, i was sad to remember the true nature of dave's state. i told ryan about it, along with a list of other things that'd been upsetting me recently. ryan called me and told me he'd ordered me a new zune, that he'd be here in a few weeks.

i cried. beth can attest to that.  i cried because i was happy, and thankful.  ryan is so amazing and sweet and... 

i cried a little bit too because i didn't feel like i deserved such a prize. not after being a huge grump and not having finished my school work (my thesis work). but ryan insisted i did, and that i do. in fact he's had neil inscribed to say you deserve more than anyone can give - ryan. i don't know if i believe him, but it's the perfect message for me right now. right now i don't feel like i deserve all i have. it's good to think ryan feels i do though ^_^ that makes me feel better.

haha, actually, i cried again when i saw neil this afternoon. tears of happiness are awesome. 

neil is blue. he's an originals with a TADO scene etched on below the enscription by ryan and he's got 120GB of space! 

i'm not sure what i'm going to fill all that space with, seeing as how we've sort of lost all our vids on account of the external hard drive over heating :/ 

p.s. whoever designed the Zune software gets an A+ for making it Katy-Friendly. two zunes, one owner, no problem.