Maybe you've heard of them? Tiny matchbox-sized boom boxes? The popular kids tell me they're all the rage. They don't intimidate little old ladies or shake the ozone when you carry them around on your shoulder, but I can live with that. I'm 36, after all.
Mine is mint green. (Much like my mini-van.) (Whoa. I am so not cool anymore.) It's sleek and shiny and chick.
Of course, my hipness factor was taken down a few notches when Connor glanced at my gift right after I'd opened it and said, "Oh! Papa has one of those!"
Which means my dad -- senior pastor, lover of God, Nano-owner and happy user of the senior discount at Denny's -- is cooler than me.
Pause and let that sink in.
Then, in maybe the ultimate insult, Connor decided I was probably too old to be trusted with this new technology and appropriated the Shuffle for his own use.
Seriously.
He especially loves to listen to "rock and roll." (That would be the Newsboys -- or the Newer Boys, as Connor often calls them.)
Sorry. I'm getting distracted by my son's cuteness.
Anyway. I love my Shuffle. (When I get to use it.) I really do. I especially get a kick out of not knowing which song will come next on my play list, because I have some seriously varied musical taste.
But the ear buds that came with it are the bane of my existence. No matter what I do, they won't stay in. They just keep popping out, like ... well, have you ever tried to stuff a large marshmallow into a thimble? It's pretty much like that.
Naturally, I looked to Google for a solution. And there are a lot of ear bud adjustment products out there. But most of them look like they are designed to keep an ear bud in an ear that is too large for the ear bud, not too small.
Corey pointed out that I could always plug in a a pair of antiquated ear-covering headphones. We have some leftover from the '80s. But I fear that will send my coolness quotient into a free fall, and Connor will never let me use the Shuffle again.
Any suggestions?
