For years I worked from home and insisted on doing so without music in the background. The TV was fine, it wasn’t a distraction. I even spent a couple of years looking forward to working with MTV’s The Tom Green Show and Loveline (I miss Dr Drew and Adam!) in the background. And then there was the .wav fixation, that lasted for all of about 3 minutes. But other than that, silence was my preferred work environment, (or as much silence as you can get with a house full of kids and animals).
That’s all changed and I blame Michelle. She came home from school one day in April of 2004 and never went back! Along with all of the craziness that comes from having a teenage daughter home all day and attempting to home school her and work at the same time, I somehow acquired a need for music while I work! I didn’t even notice it had happened until she went to NJ for the summer and the silence surrounded me!
Well wait, that’s not really true, I knew something was missing when she left but assumed it was just “her” and not the more specific lack of music. I realized it was the music that was missing when I landed on the Yahoo Launchcast Radio page after exploring Yahoo 360° for my boss.
Before I knew it, I’d programmed my own channel, (which I don’t really like because it won’t let me program down to some very specific artists), and then all of a sudden I was listening to the Melissa Ferrick Fan Station all day long while I worked. Ah ha, so this is what was missing! It wasn’t Michelle – it was Melissa and Ani and MUSIC!
And so, all was right with my work world – except for an overabundance of Indigo Girls and Bitch & Animal and a curious amount of Dar Williams (Who may be from the Boston area, (like Ferrick), and may be a folk singer, (like Ferrick), but is really not the same TYPE of musician as the majority of others on the Ferrick “fan station”. Yahoo has created some interesting play lists, that is for sure!).
But alas, something bad happened today – I ran out of “free” airplay and am now floundering around wondering what to do. Do I pay the ghastly $2.50 a week in order to hear too much Indigo Girls and Bitch & Animal? Do I muddle through with a station that I’m really not enjoying? Do I track down a radio station that might be better? Do I grab some CDs and try and find some routine of changing CDs so I don’t find myself listening to The Other Side or Massive Blur over and over again?
I have to do something! I can’t sit here in silence, Michelle will be back in a week or so and we’ll be back to music all day and then I’ll struggle to get use to that all over again.
Kids are trouble.