Turn around, bright eyes ... Every now and then, I fall apart

If you've read this blog for more than a second, you already know I have a certain quota of unreasonable cleanliness and orderliness in my life that I feel the need to live up to weekly.

But this week, cleaning the house wasn't about to fill my orderliness need (mopping, seriously, could there be any less rewarding job in the middle of a wet, muddy winter with a puppy and a husband?).

After listening to my iPod on shuffle, I noticed I had more "various" artists on my iTunes list than I did Billy Joel songs. Unlike normal people, this is disturbing to me. I have all of Billy Joel's songs on there. All his albums. All the repetitive songs.

The "various" artist labels is an example of me being lazy circa 2005, when I uploaded some songs from every "Erin's Greatest Hits Vol. 23" and "I'll Dazzle Them With My Wit" mixed CD I owned. I was too bored or lazy to look up who sang "Roll Out," a song I'm sure only made it to the "keep" list because it reminded me of a party in college, and not because I actually knew who sang it and praised it for its rap-tasticness.

Last night, I uploaded a new CD and started putting titles and names on my "various" listings while I waited for the disc to load. But the "various" artist listings kept going. So I got out all my mixed CDs, and loaded the other songs on my iTunes. Looked up titles, artists, albums.

Besides the sheer joy of having 9.3 days of songs on my iTunes, all perfectly organized, I felt a bit of sheer embarrassment. I have some baaaad songs on there. And is it my fault the soundtrack of my life includes "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "In Da Club" by 50 Cent? No. I'm just an innocent American here.

But when you open iTunes, it's all organized so the embarrassing ones are at the top ...

A light bulb went off above my head somewhere around Eminem ... If I put a Z or ZZZZ in front of names they, well, hide. Perfect! I can listen to them in the privacy of my own car, through my own iPod, without anyone knowing.

Which means I'll have to hurt anyone who wants to check out my iPod. But losing friends is a small price to pay for having "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on your iPod.