If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you probably know by now that I am in no way a morning person. My teammate Emily wakes up with the sound of chirping birds and strumming harps in her head – I wake up with the sound of screaming death metal in mine.
The other morning I woke up and the screaming death metal sound was particularly loud (meaning I was in a particularly grumpy mood), so I decided to shove my iPod in my ears and listen to Brooke Fraser’s song “Shadowfeet” fourteen times in a row. Then maybe I would feel better.
I decided to tackle some of my laundry, so as I was washing my clothes I let Brooke sing sweetly into my ears, for she too understands what it’s like to experience a rough morning or two: “when the world has fallen out from under me…”
And then my iPod fell into the water.
The somewhat soapy, mostly dirty laundry water I was using to scrub the never-ending filth out of my clothes swallowed my iPod up like a person stepping unexpectedly into quicksand (which I’ve only ever seen in the movies)
I grabbed it as soon as I could, and as I did my mind quickly flashed to my teammate Melanie, who had recently dropped her iPod in a puddle of water. The iPod never recovered.
This situation would be different, I told myself. My iPod was strong; he had a lot of character. We’ve been together through thick and thin since the fall of 2006 – he couldn’t leave me alone now. After all the late nights together, all the early Spring runs we went on together, all the road trips when he was my only companion, all the times he comforted me when my heart was breaking over a boy…this couldn’t be the end.
I tried to turn him on – the screen remained blank. I tried again. Still no signs of life. I wondered if any of my newly found nurse skills would come in handy, so I tried CPR…nothing.
ARHHHHGG!.
It was time for my team to meet for morning prayer, so I put my iPod down on the nearby counter and walked with my head down over to the table where everyone was sitting. Should I tell them? No, I’m still in a bad mood – and now an even worse mood – and I don’t want to talk to anyone. I just want to wallow.
But then, for some reason or another, I felt like I should tell them. So I did. “Any other prayer requests?” Emily asked. “Yeah,” I said as my voice cracked. “My iPod fell into a bucket of laundry water this morning.”
I expected a few sympathetic “awwws” and someone to say “of course we’ll pray for your iPod,” but instead I was met with, “QUICK! PUT IT IN A BOWL OF RICE.”
“What?” I said, dumbfounded.
“THE RICE ABSORBS ALL THE WATER!”
“IT SAVED MY BLACKBERRY!”
“GO GO GO!”
I was so confused – what they were saying sounded like a joke, but the look of absolute seriousness in their eyes made me think they were, in fact, on to something.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR…GO!” Anna jumped up and bolted toward the kitchen without me. I slowly got up and followed. When I entered the kitchen she was furiously pouring dry rice into a bowl. I grabbed my iPod, dropped it in the rice and looked at Anna. “Really?” I asked, still doubtful. “Yeah, really.” she responded. “Mel is the one who told me about it. She wanted to save her iPod after dropping it in water, but there was no rice around. It’s how she saved her Blackberry back in the States.”
Humph. Interesting.
A few days passed, but I was too scared to try turning my iPod on. Sometimes it’s nice to cling onto hope – even if it is only a fool’s hope. One day Adam told me that he tried turning it on – and try was all he was able to do.
I allowed my iPod to continue sleeping in the bowl of rice.
And then today happened. I was lying in bed (I’ve been sick the last few days) when Geoff came in my room and walked over to me. “I have to show you this song,” he said as he handed me an earphone. Geoff has often introduced me to songs before. I grabbed the earphone and shoved it in my ear. And then I heard the music…
Wait a minute, wasn’t this the song I recently introduced to Geoff? The song that no one else ever knows…wait a minute, is this my iPod? My eyes met Geoff’s, and then he held up my iPod.
VICTORY!!!
