How did I get by without one?

My wife and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary this past Friday. It's an event that falls off most people's radar and I think that's due to the way we did our wedding.

Neither of us wanted a big wedding and we didn't want to spend the money that is needed for such an event either. We decided we would have a small ceremony at the home of a retired Navy Chaplain. We had two witnesses and the Chaplain's wife in attendance. Their home was beautiful with a HUGE staircase that the bride was able to walk down as she entered the room. It was an emotional ceremony and had none of the tension of the more theatrical big wedding. We left for our honeymoon trip immediately after the ceremony and everything was great and grand.

For all intents and purposes it was like an elopement rather than a traditional church wedding. We have the most fond memories of our small ceremony, but I suspect the lack of other participants is why the anniversary itself goes without fanfare except between she and I. It's our own fault for being so quiet about the event, I know, and think for some people it was a point of contention. Family out of state and in, as well as others were offended that they didn't get a wedding invitation. Pure and simple - no one got a wedding invitation. There were none. The ceremony was for us and God since that was really what it is all about for us.

So, if you are a person who thinks you were slighted those 17 years ago, please know, you weren't.

OK...that's a long road to go down to talk about an anniversary gift, but here goes...

My dear wife bought me an iPod Shuffle. I have never owned an iPod, though I had checked them out from time to time when in department stores. It seemed like a great idea, but it always struck me as a little extravigant for some reason.

I was sorely wrong as I now deem this sliver of technology to be a necessity!

I have the Generation 2 version which is teeny tiny and holds 240 or so songs and will play for around 12 hours on a full charge. It integrates with iTunes on my MAC and works like a charm. The sound is amazing and the unit is almost weightless. It plays in the car through my casette adapter and so the portable CD player is a thing of the past.

I was listening to music I hadn't heard in years as I quickly compiled a playlist from my moderate CD collection. What's on my iPod? Well, just about a little bit of everything: Kerry Livgren, Beatles, U2, Resurrection Band, Bride, Evanescance, Kiss, Al Green, Johnny Cash, Badfinger, Grammartrain, POD, Alanis Morissette, 12 Stones, Extreme, Larry Norman, Stryper and Van Halen.

It's an eclectic mix to be sure and sometimes the transition is a bit jarring when randomly switching from one of these artists to the other, but this is all my music, all the time.

Ha ha...life is grand!