Yep. All those devices are mine. And that’s not all of them. Those were just the ones I cared to remove from my backpack. But for a time, one of them was missing… my white iPod.

On most trips, I tend to pack the things I want/need. It’s frustrating to be away from home and not being able to find the one thing you are wanting. So it’s best to be safe and pack as much as I can. Our most recent trip was no exception. And since I tend to carry a lot of shit around with me on a daily basis, all I needed to do was bring my backpack. Problem solved.

I had added some new songs and podcasts to iTunes the other day and wanted to update all of my iPods (I have 4, including a Shuffle not pictured above). I grabbed each one out of my bag and proceeded to go through the update process:

silver Shuffle. Check

orange Shuffle. Check

blue nano. Check

30gb iPod. Uh oh… where the hell is it??

Tracing back my steps since the last time I used it, I tried to think of places it might have been. In the past, I had a habit of leaving various electronics behind when I travel, which prompted me to contact all of the hotels we stayed at on our trip.

Nothing.

I then started thinking of places inside the house I might have used my iPod.

Nothing.

At this point, I started to worry, that maybe it really was gone. I started to picture where it might be now….

Seeing my frustration, my fiance asked, “Did you check all of your bags?” Well, of course I did. I always do that. But just to rule out the option that I might have missed a bag or two, I did one last search….

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Now how long it had been in a bag that I rarely use (and one that didn’t go with me on my last trip), who knows. But it didn’t matter at this point. It was found.

But it did prompt me to consider the following… do I really need to carry four iPods with me? I mean, how many songs and podcasts could I listen to at one point? Can’t one of these things fill my needs? If I only had to keep track of one iPod, then I wouldn’t need to wonder where the other three are and can avoid time-consuming searches for a misplaced gadget.

Time to think and re-evaluate what I have and pack around with me.

Stay tuned.