My first iPod Nano officially died this morning.

It was a 2nd generation that Nick gave to me back in 2006. When he got on the bandwagon with the iPods in 2007, he bought me a 3rd generation Nano so that he could use my older model for running (it was only 1 gigabyte, and I had already expressed interest in upgrading). He got up early to run before work this morning, but the little iPod couldn't get going. His run sidelined, he wasted a good hour-and-a-half troubleshooting the problem before deciding to dismantle it.

At that point, any hope I had for the 2nd generation Nano was squashed.

After work today, he bought a 5th generation Nano. I was rather fond of my 3rd gen, particularly the shape and size of it, but like a good wife-to-be, I accepted the brand new, sparkly Nano with video, built in sound, camera, and radio. I told Nick that he wasn't allowed to change the assigned name on the other one: it will always be Crookshanks.

At home, with my new old Nano strapped to his arm for a run, he asked aloud, "Wanna see what's inside an iPod!?"

I couldn't help but think of this YouTube video:



Anyway, as I saw bits of whoozits and whatzits flying about, I sighed sadly. "I cannot believe that you destroyed it. It was the first gift you ever gave me." Slowing down in his man/boy delight of destruction, he felt bad. He said that he did not realize that it had sentimental value for me.

I leaned into him, saying that it was okay. I pointed to the new sparkley 5th generation Nano syncing with my iTunes library, saying, "I suppose you got me that one too." Thinking for a second, we said simultaneously as we pointed to the iPod strapped to his bicep, "You [I] got me [you] that one, too!"

After a moment of silence, wherein I was felling pretty darn good about myself, Nick asked, "Have you ever even bought an iPod!?" Why no, no I haven't. I am rather proud of that distinction. Considering that the 5th generation is a vibrantly fiery-copper, and keeping with the Harry Potter theme, I named this one Fawkes, after Dumbledore's phoenix.

By the way, unlike the VCR above, we didn't find any salvageable bits inside the Nano…a bit of a bummer because I was really hoping to find a thumb drive and some camera storage cards. We went into the endeavor without marshmallows, so that was probably our undoing.