my ocd kicks into overdrive

so today . . . i spent most of the day sitting behind my computer working on my music files. i have LOTS of music files--kid's music that i use at school, worship music that i use for church, and then just the popular stuff that i like. i mean, i had close to 10 gigabytes of music on my last computer and used three different programs to play and store it! the problem was, each program wanted each song in it's own special format. and somehow i ended up with several copies of lots of different songs, and still without a playable file on my ipod! it was a mess.

enter my new computer. instead of just copying the whole mess onto the new machine (even though it has a 160 gb hard drive) i decided to very carefully add music and keep it organized. this, of course, immobilized me for several weeks. i just had to keep listening to the same 12 songs on my ipod, over and over and over again. but the day came when i needed to add some new music (that i needed to learn) to my ipod. and so the task of organizing and transferring began.

well, i say began, but i still haven't actually added any songs to itunes yet. the problem is that i am starting with the worship music, because that is what i need to get on my ipod right away. most of what i have are music files that have been given to me by people and they have no info on them. so before i can add a song to itunes, i have to listen to it, figure out what the title might be and who i think is singing it. then i have to go online and try to confirm what i thought, and also discover the album titles, because i need the artist name, album name, track number, and song title in order to keep it all neatly organized. and that is how i have spent most of my day, because it takes a lot of time and concentration--and also a lot of listening and guessing.

everyone i talk to thinks i am insane. "just put it in itunes and don't worry about how it is stored in your computer! itunes will figure it out."

but i would know.

i would know that the information wasn't complete. i would know that there would be a lot of "unknown artist" or "unknown album" entries and it would bother me. and then later when i would try to go back and add in more complete information, itunes wouldn't be able to find it. ( itunes hates me, but it is the only program that will interface with my ipod. stupid apple . . . !)

you see, this is why nothing ever gets done!! i get hung up in little details and the big picture gets lost. i don't cook much because i haven't written out a month's worth of menus and made a shopping list so that i will only have to go to the store once and can prepare all the vegetables ahead of time and freeze the meat in meal sized packages and pre-cook everything. i don't vacuum as often as i should because i want to go through the stack of magazines and papers that sits by my chair in the family room first and besides the vacuum is upstairs so that i don't have to see it all the time, but before i can bring it down, i should really vacuum upstairs, but that would mean bringing the bathroom rugs down to shake them and maybe i should just wash them since they are going to be downstairs, but i have other laundry going so i guess i will just have to wait.

my friend wendy says i think too much--that i should just do stuff without all the thinking. she is probably right. the thinking is what immobilizes me. but when i am not thinking, i am asleep. and i find that i am not all that productive when i am sleeping.

i am determined to get some music on this ipod before the weekend is over! it is mostly out of desperation--there are some new songs i need to learn in the next couple of weeks and the best way to do that is to get them on my ipod so i can listen and learn while walking the dogs. of course, getting the music on the ipod is only part of the solution. i also have to find some headphones that will stay in my tiny little ears while i am walking but that means going to the store, and deciding which store to try first and should i try full headphones? because the earbuds won't stay in and then there are over the head ones and behind the head ones and different colors and . . .