digital loss

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that this is super-pathetic, and very much antithetical to my otherwise relatively anti-consumerist ways. But I can't find my iPod, and it's really pissing me off.

I used it on a bike ride with Nate so we could listen to Fela Kuti. This was before the move. I think I put Gillian Welch on it right before going to Anders's cabin, and then stuck it in my backpack. This was right before the move. I didn't use it at the cabin, so its presence there is only referentially confirmed.

When first looking for it two weeks after moving, I have found only its veins, veins of various sorts, all of its veins. They were mostly in the same place.

Now, as I'm about to embark on a cross-country roadtrip, I've been rummaging over and over through the remaining half-unpacked boxes, to no avail. Could I have really lost it? Where? How? Did I listen to it at work, leave it on my desk, and let it get swiped?

I can't stop talking about it, dreaming about it, and I'd really rather just be able to remember it's a goddamn piece of metal and plastic.